The Mysterious Mr Leadbetter
by Shergar
Summary: The story behind that tantalising scene in Pig in a Blanket, where Danny is fighting with an unknown male and is saved by Chinough Olena.
1. Chapter 1

The Mysterious Mr Leadbetter

The call came in the day after Steve McGarrett left for Los Angeles for a conference on new policing methods and the chance for Steve to visit his sister and her family at the same time. The plan was for Steve to stay a whole week, but Danny Williams doubted if that miracle would happen.

"Danny." Jenny, their ultra-efficient secretary, put her hand over the receiver as Danny popped his head out of his cubicle. "Duke and it sounds important."

"Thanks, Jenny, I'll take it in here." Danny reached for the phone, wondering what had happened that would disrupt his plans for the day. "Hi, Duke. What can I do for you?"

"Danny, I've just had a Mrs Brian Leadbetter on the phone. Her husband disappeared yesterday afternoon."

Standard procedure said 24 hours should go past before an adult could be considered a missing person. However, there was obviously something else going on here and the name seemed familiar to Danny although he couldn't think why. "Who is Brian Leadbetter and why are you calling me about a missing person?"

"He's chief financier and accountant at Dobson, Crane and Leadbetter," Duke replied. "He's involved with auditing the finances of the State of Hawaii and both Steve and the Governor know him socially," Duke replied.

"I guess that would give this case a head start," Danny agreed, jotting down the few details Duke had just given him. "How much does he know about the state finances?"

"Pretty much everything, I'm told," Duke replied grimly.

"Enough that he might have been kidnapped?" Danny enquired, already knowing the answer to that.

"Yeah," Duke agreed. "He was last seen by his secretary yesterday afternoon at the office. I've sent men down there to seal it off, but told them not to touch anything until you get there."

"Give me the address of his home and office," Danny requested. "Get someone down to stay with the wife in case a call comes in. I'll send Chin down there as soon as I can." He scribbled down the addresses, thanked Duke and grabbed his jacket.

"Jenny, I need Che and a team to this address as soon as possible," he said, shrugging into his jacket as Jenny copied it down. "Chin, I want you to go down to join Mrs Leadbetter, but first I want you to find out everything you can about Brain Leadbetter."

"Sure, Danny," Chin nodded.

"Kono, you're with me. Jenny, if Steve or the Governor calls about this, I'll get back to them as soon as I can."

"Got it," Jenny snapped crisply and lifted the phone as Danny and Kono hurried out of the office.

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The secretary, a middle-aged woman called Miss Brodie, did not seem flustered by her employer's disappearance. "It's none of my business where he is," she informed Danny tartly, peering at him disapprovingly over her half-moon glasses. She wore her greying hair in a bun and the tweed skirt she wore must have been uncomfortably hot outside the environs of the air conditioned office. "I would never have called his home if I hadn't needed instructions about a letter that came this morning."

"What time did you leave last night?" Danny asked.

"I already told this other policeman," Miss Brodie replied. "Do you people not talk to each other?" She glared at Danny who said nothing. He merely waited and she signed in annoyance. "I left precisely at 5pm," she told him. "Not one minute before and not one minute after. Mr Leadbetter was still here when I left."

"How did you know that Mr Leadbetter wasn't already in the office this morning?" Danny asked.

"I arrived promptly at 7.30 am," she reported primly. "Mr Leadbetter always arrives at 8am. When I still had not seen him after dealing with the post, I used the intercom to the office and he didn't reply, so I called his home."

"And what time was it that you called Mrs Leadbetter?" Danny wanted to know.

"It was 9.30am," the lady replied. "Of course, I didn't call to speak to _Mrs_ Leadbetter. It was _Mr_ Leadbetter I wanted to speak with."

"Did you notice anything out of place in the office?" Danny asked. "Any signs of a struggle?"

Drawing back and putting a hand on her bosom, Miss Brodie reacted as though Danny had made an improper suggestion. "I didn't open the office door!" she objected. "It isn't my place!"

"So you haven't been into the office?" Danny demanded, exchanging a horrified glance with Kono. As the lady shook her head, Danny said, "Stay here please." He beckoned an officer to stay with the secretary and he and Kono hurried over to the office door. Leadbetter could be lying in there dead! He took a deep breath and eased the door open and stepped cautiously into the room.

To his intense relief, there wasn't a body in sight. The office was very tidy, with no signs of a struggle. Papers were stacked neatly on the desk, the pens lined up tidily and the chair tucked in. There was no visible blood and nothing to suggest that Leadbetter had been taken from the office by force.

"Let Che and his men in here as soon as they arrive," Danny told Kono. "See if they can find anything that might be useful. I'll go and interview the wife."

Returning to the outer office, Danny had one more question for the less than helpful secretary. "What kind of car does Mr Leadbetter drive?" he asked.

"Oh a very nice one," Miss Brodie replied helpfully. "It's dark green. Or is it black?"

Not in the mood to try and get more information that she clearly didn't know, Danny simply thanked her and headed out of the office. He rode the elevator down to the garage and there found the security guard. "Do you know Mr Leadbetter?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," the man replied.

"Is his car here?"

"Right over here," the guard replied. He led Danny over to a dark blue Lincoln Continental. It had a vanity plate that read 'BRI 1'.

"What time did it come in this morning?" Danny asked, not touching the vehicle. It would need to be examined by the lab team.

Stepping over to his booth, the guard consulted his clipboard, and after a moment flipped over to another page. "According to the log, it's been here since yesterday morning," he reported.

"Is that unusual?" Danny asked.

"It isn't common, but I have known it to happen," the guard replied. "Usually after the Christmas party, when Mr Leadbetter has had a drink and doesn't want to drive." He looked at Danny. "Is something wrong?"

"It seems Mr Leadbetter has disappeared," Danny replied. "Please don't let anyone come near this car until the lab team have finished with it." Frowning, Danny left the garage on foot and returned to his own car. Using the mic, he called his orders back to Jenny and asked her to contact Kono with them. Starting the car, he headed towards the Leadbetters' home.

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Chin met Danny at the door of the large house in Aina Haina. "How's the wife taking the news?" Danny asked, mentally gearing himself up for a sobbing woman.

"Really well," Chin replied dryly. "She's so spaced out on tranquilisers that I'm surprised that she was able to call him in as missing."

"Oh great," Danny sighed. That was the last thing he needed. He would have preferred the tears. "Has she had a ransom demand?"

"No, she says not."

"Okay." Danny went into the house, Chin following behind.

The inside of the house was bright and airy. There was an open plan sitting/dining area and a door at the back led, Danny assumed, to the kitchen. The furnishings were nice and looked comfortable and welcoming, not stiff like Danny had seen in other wealthy homes. They looked as though they were used regularly and were not just for show.

Curled up in an armchair, wearing some floaty, airy outfit that made her look incredibly frail and vulnerable was Mrs Leadbetter. Her hands were wrapped around a steaming, fragrant mug of coffee, but her eyes were fixed on a distant point. She was a slender, pretty woman in early middle age.

"I got the housekeeper to make her some coffee to see if that would sober her up," Chin explained in an undertone. "It don't seem to have worked."

"Good idea," Danny replied and walked across to the woman. "Mrs Leadbetter?" There was no response, so Danny said her name more forcefully and she blinked and focused on him. He showed her his badge. "Mrs Leadbetter, I'm Detective Dan Williams of Hawaii Five-O," he told her. "I wonder if you could answer some questions for me?"

"If you like," Mrs Leadbetter agreed politely.

Hoping that this moment of clarity would remain, Danny sat down nearby. Chin stood behind him. "Can you tell me when you last saw your husband?"

"I think it was yesterday morning," she replied vaguely. "He came to my room to say goodbye." An expression of faint surprise crossed her face. "He was quite affectionate," she added. "Yes, quite affectionate." A delicate blush coloured her face.

"Is he not usually affectionate?" Danny asked, hating that he had to pry, but knowing it was essential.

"No," she admitted slowly. "Not since… not since… our baby died." The sad statement and the acceptance of her husband's emotional distance touched a protective chord in Danny.

"Did you notice anything else unusual?" Danny asked after a moment.

For a moment, he thought the window of clarity had closed, but it seemed that Mrs Leadbetter was just remembering. "He put something in the care before he came back to say goodbye," she ventured after a moment. "It might have been a suitcase. I was standing at the window of my room, you see," she explained, sounding anxious. "I do that every morning if I am awake. That way, I get to see him at least once."

The picture of the marriage was becoming clear to both Danny and Chin. The couple had clearly drifted apart for whatever reasons. Danny felt very sorry for Mrs Leadbetter. However, he had a job to do and that was to find this poor woman's husband.

"May we have a look around the house and in Mr Leadbetter's room?" he asked.

"Whatever you want," she agreed.

"Thank you," Danny replied gently. He rose to his feet. Mrs Leadbetter looked up at him, tears streaming down her face suddenly.

"He's left me, hasn't he?" she croaked.

It looked as though he had, but Danny could neither confirm nor deny it until he found the missing man. He had no idea what to say to her. Grief counselling was not his forte. Mrs Leadbetter might be well stoned on tranquilisers, but she knew what she had seen.

"Danny!" Chin reached out and yanked the younger detective back as Mrs Leadbetter dropped her mug of coffee as she lurched ungracefully to her feet. The scalding hot mug of coffee spilled everywhere, but fortunately Danny escaped, thanks to Chin's quick reactions. Mrs Leadbetter was also unscathed and ran upstairs. A door banged shut and they distinctly heard a lock click.

"Thanks, Chin," Danny breathed, looking at the pool of coffee at his feet. There were a few dark stains on the legs of his cream-coloured suit, but he wasn't burned. "See if you can find out who her doctor is and get him out here. I think she needs to see him.

"Will do, Danny," Chin agreed. "You okay, bruddah?"

"Just fine," Danny assured him. "I'm going to search Leadbetter's bedroom. Could you also check the airlines and all ships and find out if he's already left the island and if so where he went? If not, then make sure we have all exits covered."

"On it," Chin nodded.

Leaving the older man to it, Danny mounted the stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

The room was expensively furnished, masculine in taste and bore every sign of a hasty exit. A single black sock hung out of an open drawer and the wardrobe door stood wide open. Using a handkerchief, Danny eased open the drawers that were closed. There were clothes left behind, but it appeared to Danny's trained eye that Leadbetter had taken some of every kind of clothes – smart, business and casual – and although his departure was hasty, there were no signs of force in the room.

The rest of the house was the same. The large bathroom had only feminine toiletries, but rings and areas bare of dust told Danny there had been other bottles and jars there until recently. The other rooms on the upper floor were clearly unused, spare rooms for visitors. There was an air of neglect about them.

Downstairs, he re-joined Chin and questioned the housekeeper. "Yes, I made breakfast for Mr Leadbetter," she confirmed. "He left for work about his usual time, but he hadn't returned home when I finished yesterday evening. I had made a salad for his dinner and left it in the refrigerator and I did notice this morning that he hadn't eaten it. His car was already gone when I got here."

"Did you notice anything unusual in his behaviour?" Danny asked.

"Nothing," the woman replied firmly and closed her mouth with finality. Danny knew they would get nothing further out of her.

"Is there a recent photo of Mr Leadbetter that we might have?" Danny asked and the housekeeper obligingly fetched one. Leadbetter appeared to be in his mid-40s with greying dark hair and a moustache. He didn't appear to be a very tall man, although it was impossible to be sure from the head-and-shoulders shot. His build was similar to Danny's. The housekeeper confirmed that he was about the same height as Danny.

There was nothing more they could do at the house, so Danny headed back to the Palace, leaving two officers at the house, one male and one female, in case a ransom demand came in. Chin went down to HPD to get the photo copied and distributed to all on-duty police officers, the airport and the docks. An APB was also issued.

"Any word from Che?" Danny asked as he entered the office.

"Not yet," Jenny replied. "Kono said they are finished with the office and car but there are a lot of prints to run down. They didn't find a body. Kono is on his way back."

"Thanks." Danny wanted to know what Che had found – or not found – now, but he curbed his impatience. Che was the best, but even genius needed time to work. "Anything else?"

"The press are asking questions." Jenny gave a tight smile. "I'm giving them the party line." She paused.

"No comment," they chorused and smiled at each other.

While he was no closer to finding Leadbetter, Danny knew he had made some progress. "When Kono gets back, ask him to check all the car rental agencies and see if Leadbetter has rented a car."

"Will do," Jenny agreed as the phone rang. She answered it and Danny lingered for a moment in case it was for him, but from the expression of distaste on Jenny's face, he guessed it was the press. He left her to it and ducked into his cubicle. Shedding his jacket, he looked over his notes.

Within a few minutes, both Kono and Chin joined him and Jenny brought them coffee. "What have we got?" Danny asked after thanking Jenny.

"Che went over everything with a fine-tooth comb," Kono reported. "Ain't no sign of violence, bruddah."

"I've got Leadbetter's history from HPD," Chin offered. He handed over a thin file. "There's something funny here, Danny."

"How so?" Danny asked, although he was surprised by the slimness of the file.

"Well, since he should have been thoroughly vetted before he was given clearance to work for the State, there's almost nothing about him in there." Chin looked perplexed, as well he might.

Flicking open the file, Danny could see exactly why Chin was troubled by the scanty information. "Leave it with me," he replied. "I'll track down the person who cleared him and get a fully copy of the report. I'll also find out who put this in the files instead of the correct version!"

"What do you want us to do, Danny?" Kono asked.

"Chase down the car rental agencies," Danny instructed him. "Chin, can you check the airport and docks again? Kono, you can help him if he needs it."

"Sure thing." They left together and Danny read through the thin file which told him nothing. The signature of the person who had cleared Leadbetter to work for the State was illegible and there were no agency initials to add clarity. Danny took the file to the office expert in deciphering bad hand writing – Jenny.

"That isn't a signature," the petite redhead informed Danny scathingly. "It's a scribble." She handed it back to him. "You're the hand writing expert," she added. "Couldn't you see that?"

"I wanted your opinion, too," he informed her, not at all put out by the tart tone. "Can you get me the local CIA office please?"

There followed an extremely frustrating hour and a half as Danny chased around from one government agency to another and met evasive answers or stonewalls at every turn. Completely frustrated and feeling decided short-tempered, Danny got Jenny to place a call to the Ohio Department of Health to ask about Leadbetter's birth.

"Danny?" Chin put his head into the cubicle and studied his young boss worriedly. The query about lunch flew from his mind. Danny looked positively pole-axed. "You all right, bruddah?"

"I don't know," Danny admitted. "Chin – according to Ohio, Brian Leadbetter doesn't exist!"

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"How can that be?" Chin asked.

"I don't know," Danny replied, but he was moving past the shock and thinking like a detective again. "But I'm going to find out. What can I do for you?" he asked.

"I just wondered if you wanted some late lunch?" Chin asked.

"Good thinking." Danny had been so busy and so frustrated that he hadn't noticed it was mid-afternoon. He was starving. "Here you go." He handed Chin some money. "Any luck with the airport and docks?"

"As far as we can tell, Leadbetter hasn't left the rock," Chin reported. "There are officers everywhere with orders to prevent him leaving and contact us if he does try."

"Good. What about car rentals?"

"Came up blank," Chin sighed. "He hasn't rented a car."

"Okay. Keep me notified if anything does turn up. I'm going to contact Washington and find out what's going on." There were a few people that Steve had contacts with in Washington DC and Danny was determined to find out what was going on. "Jenny, could you get Jonathon Kaye for me please?"

To his annoyance and further frustration, Kaye was not in his office. Danny left a message for him to call back as soon as he could. Determined to find out what he could, Danny placed a call to the head office of the CIA. He was shunted through various people, explaining himself over and over again before having to settle for a promise to call him back shortly. He grimaced. Another hour had flown past. He had devoured the sandwiches that Chin had returned with while on hold with… he forgot which agency. Rubbing his face, Danny made another attempt to track down someone to help him at the FBI headquarters. He once more got the run-around.

By now, it was gone 5pm. Most of the people he really wanted to speak to in Washington were long gone from their offices and there was nothing else he could do that day. He was on call for the team that evening anyway, so if something should come up during the night, he would be the person contacted.

"Go home," he told Chin and Kono. "We'll get started again in the morning." Equally tired from their fruitless work, both men agreed readily.

Just as Danny was about to leave the office, Che came in with some fingerprints. They had been identified as Brian Leadbetter's prints and Danny was thankful to finally have something to work with. He fired the prints off in a telex to Washington and hoped that there would be a reply in the morning and finally headed for home.

Parking the LTD in its slot, Danny climbed from the big car wearily. His tie hung loose around his neck and his shirt collar was unbuttoned. Danny was looking forward to climbing into more comfortable clothes. He wasn't sure what he had in the fridge worth eating, but there probably would be something… he hoped. He really wasn't in the mood to go grocery shopping this evening. If there wasn't anything edible, he would get takeout, he decided.

Two men wearing dark suits stepped out of the shadows beside the elevator. Danny hesitated. His gun was in its holster, hidden by his jacket, but he didn't want to over react. "Dan Williams?" asked one.

"Yes," Danny agreed warily. "Who are you?"

"FBI, Mr Williams," the other replied. "You have to come with us."

"What's this about?" Danny asked, not moving, but prepared to make a break for freedom.

"Mr Williams, you can either come with us voluntarily, or we will take you by force," the other man replied. He made a slight gesture with his head and Danny glanced around, seeing three other men in dark suits emerging from various places in the garage. He was hopelessly outnumbered.

"All right," he agreed and the next instant, he was tightly surrounded. His gun was taken from his holster and his hands were cuffed behind his back. "Hey!" he objected, but none of the men paid any heed to him. He was dragged across the garage, resisting fiercely the whole way, and forced into the back seat of a car with blacked-out windows.


	3. Chapter 3

The journey did not take very long, but Danny had no idea where they were, as the car had a divider between the seats that blocked his view out of the front of the car. His companion in the back watched him closely the whole time, but said not a word. When the car stopped, Danny was hustled into the elevator in the underground car park. They emerged on the third floor, but nowhere were there any identifying signs. A large man sat at a simple table and rose when Danny and his escort appeared. No words were exchanged, but all Danny's personal belongings were taken from him and the search they conducted was extremely thorough. Despite all his questions and demands, nobody said a single word to Danny or to each other. Once all his belongings were removed, he was led along a corridor and through a locked iron door. Beyond the door were several other iron doors and Danny recognised a cell block. "Hey what is this?" he demanded again, but he was ignored and when he resisted, he was dragged down to the far end of the corridor and one of the men unlocked the metal door. The cuffs were removed and Danny was shoved inside. The door banged closed behind him and was locked.

Rubbing his sore wrists, Danny took stock of his situation. He had been taken by the FBI from his apartment complex. Nobody had witnessed his abduction, for want of a better word, and he had no idea where he was now. Local FBI headquarters did not look like this building he was in now. He had been there often enough to recognise them. He was now locked in a tiny cell with only a bare metal bunk and a metal commode for company. There was no window, barred or otherwise. The door, which he had noticed in passing was about 6 inches thick, was solidly locked. He shouted and the dead quality of the room told him it was heavily sound-proofed. Nobody knew where he was.

Clenching his fists, Danny took several deep breaths to try and rein in his temper. There wasn't even room to pace. Four steps took him from the door to the back wall. Two steps took him from the bunk to the side wall. He was trapped and there was absolutely nothing he could do about.

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Impatience kept Danny on his feet for some time, but eventually the long day caught up with him and he sank down on the bunk. The metal was cool under his legs, but gradually his body heat warmed it. Danny wondered what particular question he had asked that had sparked this treatment. Not that he was being ill-treated, but he reflected that he might have behaved better. His temper had escaped his control once more. On the flip side of that, the FBI agents could have told him what was going on, instead of treating him like a criminal.

The sound of a key in the lock roused him from his thoughts, and he rose warily as the door opened. A large uniformed guard stood there and behind him were another couple of men in suits. "You are to come with us, Mr Williams," they informed the detective. "Please put your hands behind your back."

"You don't have to cuff me," Danny replied. "I won't resist." There was nowhere he could go, even if he managed to escape the cell. The whole building was ultra-secure.

"It is standard procedure," the spokesman said.

There really was no choice, so Danny submitted quietly. He was led from the cell block down a long corridor and shown into another bare room. There was a table and two chairs. The standard mirror was built into one wall and as Danny was urged into one chair, he kept his gaze on his own reflection, hoping that his steady eye contact would convey to his captors that he was not cowed or scared. The latter wasn't quite true – he was very apprehensive. Nobody knew where he was and it might be long enough before the FBI decided to release him. It wasn't a comfortable prospect.

More time passed before the door opened and a dark-suited man entered, carrying a folder. He placed it on the table and sat down. His movements were very neat and precise. His blond hair was slicked into place and Danny supposed the ladies would think him handsome, with his regular features. He was taller than Danny and his shoulders strained at the material of his expensive suit. He said nothing, and Danny resisted the urge to ask questions. He had taken part in many interrogations; he knew how this worked. Two could play at the waiting game.

Finally, a faint smile passed over the blond agent's face and he spoke. "Mr Williams, you have been causing something of a nuisance of yourself today."

"Really?" Danny replied. "Only today?"

Again, there was the faint smile. "Only today as far as we are concerned," the man replied. "We have been looking into your background."

"I'm sure that was a boring job for someone," Danny smiled. "What did you find? Anything interesting?"

"Quite a few things, as it happens," the agent countered. "The one thing we didn't find was appropriate clearance for you to be asking the questions that you were asking."

"I'm a cop in Hawaii Five-O," Danny retorted. "I am conducting a missing persons investigation and in the course of that investigation, I discovered that the person I am looking for appears to be working for the State without the appropriate clearances. Since these clearances should have been signed off by you, or the CIA or someone similar, it doesn't seem out of the question to me to try and find out who cleared him. My missing person has been dealing with very sensitive information and if he has been kidnapped, it is imperative that I find him as soon as possible so that his kidnappers have no chance to make use of the information he possesses." He gave the agent a hard look. "All that falls within my purview, does it not?"

"Not all of it, no," the agent replied. "At the moment, on the surface, it looks as though you are going through the motions for this investigation. However, we take nothing on face value and you will be our guest until such times as we are convinced that you are telling the truth."

"What?" Danny's resolution to be calm shattered into a million pieces. "You can't do that! We're a man down at Five-O already this week and I am in charge! I have to be there!"

"You'd be surprised at what we can do if we think it best," the agent responded coolly. "And even if we didn't have the right, what are you going to do about it? I'm not the one in handcuffs, am I?"

The urge to throw himself over the table and throttle the agent was almost overwhelming. Almost. Danny was only too aware of the handcuffs and his own vulnerability. "Under Federal law, I am entitled to a phone call. You must charge me with some crime, or let me go."

"We're not the police," the agent reminded him, standing up. Danny rose as well, not wanting to appear as intimidated as he was beginning to feel. "You'll be taken back to your cell. Our investigation will continue and if we find that you are as innocent as you appear to be, you will be released to return to your job."

"And when will that be?" Danny enquired acidly. "In a day? A week? A month? A year? Longer? Will I be here until everyone has forgotten about me? Or will I mysteriously turn up one day missing my memory?"

"Really, Mr Williams," the agent scoffed. "You've been reading too many bad novels."

"Or maybe I've worked with you scum bags long enough to know how you do things," Danny retorted. He knew he shouldn't be baiting his captors, but his temper had completely escaped his control. "I want my phone call. Now!"

For a second, Danny thought that perhaps his command tone had worked. Then the blond agent shook his head. "Getting angry won't get you anywhere," he warned. "We'll talk again, Mr Williams."

"It seems that you do the talking, but you aren't interested in anything I might have to say," Danny snapped. "So you just go and decide that I have no right to ask questions and then tell me that this is where I'll be staying, without a trial, until I am old and grey."

"You will have a trial if I decide you are guilty of treason," the agent warned him. "You're walking on very thin ice here, Mr Williams. I would be very careful if I were you. I can make your time here very unpleasant indeed."

"It hasn't been a bed of roses so far," Danny told him. "Do your worst."

Sighing, the agent opened the door and beckoned to the large guard waiting outside. The guard motioned to Danny, who ignored him, still glaring at the agent. Stepping aside, the agent allowed the guard into the room, where he grabbed Danny's arm and dragged him out. The bruising grip reminded Danny of how alone and vulnerable he really was, but it didn't quell his temper, it just exacerbated it. He was totally at boiling point when they arrived back at his cell and had the guard been any smaller, he might have created more of a fuss than he did as the handcuffs were removed and he was pushed, none too gently, inside.

The need to vent over-rode his common sense for a few moments and it wasn't until the pain of abraded skin and bruised knuckles hit him that he realised he had been dumb enough to punch the wall. Sinking down onto the bunk, he blew gently on the bleeding flesh and thanked his lucky stars that his uncontrolled outburst had not done more harm. He could have broken his hand, he supposed. He didn't even have a handkerchief to wrap around it.

Abruptly, the lights went out. Danny startled. He hadn't realised it was that late, but then wondered if it was still early and they were only trying to confuse him by leaving him in the dark. It wasn't a comfortable thought. High in one corner, a small red light gleamed and he realised that he was being watched all the time. That wasn't a comfortable thought, either. They had witnessed his ungoverned burst of temper.

"You need to do better," he chided himself quietly. "Much better."

Cradling his sore hand, he lay down and tried to relax. It wasn't easy. The bunk was cold and hard and his stomach was achingly empty. He was alone and would be there for who knew how long? Nobody knew where he was and it was all because of the mysterious Mr Leadbetter.


	4. Chapter 4

T As the phone rang endlessly in Danny's apartment, Steve began to feel slightly uneasy. Perhaps Danny wasn't on call tonight; perhaps one of the others had swapped with him, but Steve thought that unlikely. Danny wasn't at the office and an earlier attempt to contact him via dispatch had failed as well. Crashing the phone down, Steve paced for a few moments as he considered what this meant and then dialled Chin's home.

As the Chinese detective assured Steve that Danny was on call that might, Steve began to feel very uneasy. His gut told him that something was going on. "Chin, what was Danno working on?" he asked.

"A missing persons, Steve," Chin replied. "Someone you know – Brian Leadbetter."

"Leadbetter?" Steve mused. "Oh, yeah. I wouldn't say I know him, exactly, but we've met. He's missing? Isn't he something to do with State finances?"

"Yeah, that's him," Chin agreed and filled Steve in on what they knew about the disappearance. "Thing is, boss, Danny discovered that this Leadbetter has a false birth certificate and he spent the afternoon trying to track down the person who cleared him for working for the State."

The picture was becoming a bit clearer to Steve now. "I'm coming back," Steve told his detective. "Can you cover being on call tonight? I'm going to get the next possible flight." If Danny had been persistent in his digging, and Steve knew there was no question that he would have been persistent, then he would undoubtedly have stepped on the wrong toes somewhere. He clearly had some suspicions that all was not as it should be and to Steve, that shouted of Federal involvement.

Quickly throwing his few belongings into his case, Steve called down to the hotel desk to have his bill prepared and order a cab to the airport. A swift call to his sister to apologise for leaving so abruptly and he was on his way. He managed to get on a flight leaving in two hours and spent the next while on the phone, treading heavily on a few toes himself until he found the person he wanted. By the time he boarded the flight to Honolulu, he had made his displeasure known to various of his Washington acquaintances and fully expected to be able to resolve this situation to his own satisfaction when he returned home in a few short hours.

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Kono and Chin met at the Palace. Kono's face was clouded with worry as Chin related Steve's call to him. "Who do you think got da kaikaina?" he asked.

"Dunno for sure," Chin replied, "but Steve thinks it's the Feds."

"Why?" Kono wanted to know.

"I dunno, bruddah, but let's get on and do some more work so we know a bit more when Steve gets back," Chin suggested. "We need to look into Leadbetter's finances and let's look at the company as a whole. Find out who these other guys are who work with him."

"Okay." Kono paused. "Da kaikaina – he'll be all right?"

Soberly, Chin met Kono's gaze. "I hope so, bruddah," he sighed. "I hope so."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The darkness combined with his long, frustrating day and his sustained burst of bad temper sent Danny to sleep. He was subliminally aware of being slightly cold, but not aware enough to waken and try to do something about it. All through his dreams, he followed the thread of Leadbetter's disappearance and his sleep was anything but restful. He woke several times to the same impenetrable darkness with only the tiny, glowing red dot in the corner keeping him company.

The lights blazing on again woke him from a light sleep and he shielded his eyes until they grew accustomed to the brightness. He made use of the facilities and longed for a cup of coffee and something to eat. It didn't seem likely that either would be forthcoming any time soon. The knuckles of his right hand were bruised and swollen, but the cuts had scabbed over. His hand was sore, but Danny knew he had been lucky not to hurt himself worse. He vowed to keep a tight lid on his temper from now on. He also knew that that was easier said than done.

Some time later – Danny hated that he had already lost track of time – a slot in the bottom of the door opened and a tray was slid inside. The tantalising smell of hot coffee hit him like a ton of bricks. Rising, Danny collected the tray and placed it on the bunk. Besides the large mug of coffee, there was a plate with a couple of bacon-filled bread rolls. They also smelt heavenly.

After a momentary hesitation, Danny started eating. If the food was drugged with truth serum or something similar, it wouldn't gain the agents any ground. Danny was telling them the truth and if they didn't believe it, there was nothing he could do to change their minds. He doubted if proof of innocence would carry any weight in this case and wondered at his own cynical attitude. Normally he would never have believed that this kind of treatment happened in the US. Now he knew better.

Finally warm and with his belly at least partly satisfied, Danny leaned back against the wall and waited to see what would happen that day. He wondered what his friends would think when he didn't turn up at the office and they could find no sign of him. Another missing persons hunt would be underway.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Steve!" Chin sounded relieved as he greeted his boss. "Glad you're back, boss."

"Thanks." Steve put down his suitcase. He had not taken the time to go home, but had come straight to the office. "Any word?"

"Nothing," Kono reported gloomily.

"All right. I'm going to shower and change quickly and then I have a couple of calls to make. If anyone phones for me, I won't be long." He headed off in the direction of the locker room and emerged a short time later showered and shaved and dressed in a suit, ready for business. Chin reported no phone calls, but as Steve reached for the phone to start pestering people again, it rang under his hand. "McGarrett."

Watching Steve as their boss listened to someone at the other end, both detectives were glad they were not on the receiving end of the dark looks that the boss directed at the hapless phone. Steve said nothing for several minutes as he listened and then finally nodded. "Good," he snapped. "This was a ridiculous situation from the word go. There had better not be any more interference in this case. I'll be right there and Detective Williams had better be waiting for me." He slammed the phone down and found a tight smile for his detectives. "I am going to fetch Danno now," he told them.

"He's all right?" Kono asked.

"He'd better be," Steve replied.

"Where is he?" Chin wanted to know.

"I can't divulge his exact whereabouts, but suffice to say that the Feds once more decided to poke their noses into something that was none of their concern." Steve sighed. "I hopefully won't be long."


	5. Chapter 5

The guard showed up some time later and Danny meekly submitted to having his hands cuffed behind him again. He thought this routine was ridiculous, but he had little choice in the matter. He was led back down the interminable corridors and deposited into an interrogation room that looked the same as the one he had been in the previous evening. The same blond agent appeared in the room only moments later.

"Detective Williams, I want to know exactly why you were requesting a fingerprint match from Washington DC when you had already been told that those prints matched Brian Leadbetter."

"I want to know why I am being kept here without being allowed to exercise my constitutional rights," Danny retorted. "Somehow, I don't think either of us are going to get the answers that we would like."

The expression on the blond agent's face darkened and he rose to his feet to loom threatening over Danny. "I had heard you had a smart mouth. What a pity it isn't connected to your brain. So far, I've treated you well, but I need the answers to these questions and one way or another, you are going to provide them. Now, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

Leaning back in his chair, Danny said nothing. He was pretty sure that the agent did not intend to use physical force against him, although the other man was certainly formidably muscled. Drugs would be their first choice, he decided and they would have to go and fetch whatever they were going to use against him. He might as well bait the agent while he had the chance.

There was a knock on the door and the guard put his head in and said, "Could I have a word, sir? It's important."

"We'll continue this in a moment," the agent informed Danny, throwing him another black look for good measure.

"Can't wait," Danny murmured and resisted the urge to try and ease his shoulders. He was only too aware of the possibilities of watchers behind the mirror and he did not want to display anything that could have been taken as a weakness. He had no idea who these people were, but he was sure they were not FBI. He had seen no badges when he was 'arrested' and he was pretty sure the FBI would not be able to get away with holding him this long and denying him his constitutional rights. He had already shown too much weakness the night before by punching the wall. He gingerly flexed his stiff fingers and swallowed a wince.

Raised voices in the corridor made Danny perk up. He couldn't hear the words, but for the sound to be heard inside the interrogation room whoever was arguing was really, really loud. He was intrigued and wondered if perhaps this was something to do with him. He firmly quelled the hope that sprang up.

The next instant the door opened and the blond agent came back in. His face was flushed and his perfect hair was ruffled. An older man followed him into the room and looked just as disgruntled as the blond agent. "Come with me," the older man ordered and yanked Danny to his feet and tugged him from the room.

"What's going on?" Danny asked. He was ignored as he was led along a different route than led to the cells.

It was a slight surprise to find himself in the unmarked lobby with the plain table. The guard stood there looking defensive and facing him was…

"Steve!" There was more relief in Danny's voice than he had intended, but he was so pleased to see his friend that he didn't care. The bubble of hope grew.

"Danno." Steve nodded to him and his eyes swept over his detective, taking in his condition. "Why is he cuffed?" Steve demanded. "Release him this minute!"

There was a subdued snarl of protest from the blond agent which was swiftly quelled by a basilisk stare from the irate McGarrett and Danny felt hands fumbling for a moment before the cuffs were removed. Danny rubbed his wrists, pulling his arm from the older agent's grip. He walked over to stand by Steve, feeling better by the second.

"His personal possessions," Steve reminded the guard, who took a manila envelope from a drawer and handed it over. Danny took it and checked it, stowing his belongings into his pockets. He slid his revolver into the holster he still wore on his belt.

"I hope there won't be a repeat of this incident," Steve said frostily. "You will not impede our investigation of this matter. Is that quite clear?"

For a moment, Danny thought the blond agent was going to argue and he relished the notion of Steve verbally eviscerating the man, but a scathing look from the older agent and an arctic blast from McGarrett quashed him and he subsided.

"There will be no further involvement from us," the older man assured Steve, although his distaste for the words was clear in his tone.

Nodding an acknowledgement, Steve nudged his detective's shoulder. "Let's go, Danno," he suggested and Danny willingly preceded him out of the door.

"Who were those guys?" Danny asked when they were safely in the elevator and descending.

Sighing heavily, Steve examined Danny. Seeing the fatigue in his friend's stance, the wrinkled suit and the dark circles under his eyes, he felt a pang of regret that he could not share this information. "I wish I could tell you," he admitted, "but part of the agreement to make them back off and release you was the promise that I wouldn't reveal their identity. Suffice to say, they are a covert government agency. Sorry, Danno." He rested a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Believe me, I felt a lot cleaner before I found out about their existence."

"I knew they weren't FBI," Danny replied, his jaw clenched at the machinations his boss had gone through to secure his release. "Mahalo, Steve. I thought I was going to be there forever." He unconsciously rubbed his wrists. Steve reached out and caught Danny's wrist, lifting it to examine the bruised, swollen right hand.

"What happened here?" he asked, anger creeping into his voice.

"My temper got the better of me," Danny replied. "It's fine, Steve. Nothing broken." He gently freed his wrist and hid his hand in his pants pocket. "How did you know where I was?"

Guiding Danny to the car, Steve replied, "I tried to call you last night. When I couldn't raise you at all, I called Chin. He explained some of what was going on and I followed up on your calls to Washington as I waited for a flight back."

"Who did you roust out of bed?" Danny asked.

"In the end, Jonathan Kaye," Steve admitted. "But I spoke to various other people along the way. I'm sorry, Danno, but you won't be getting a reply to your request for fingerprint identification."

"Damn it, Steve, this case is at a standstill and I need that information!" Danny didn't mean to take his frustrations out on his boss, but this was about the last straw in the rather unsettling, frustrating 24 hours he had just endured.

"I know," Steve replied, forbearing to take offence. He wanted to snap right back, but he knew that Danny was not angry with him, just with the world in general. "We'll work it together and see what we can come up with."

"Leadbetter is tied up somehow with those goons we just left behind, isn't he?" Danny asked. He rubbed his face and winced as his hand twinged. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blow up at you."

"Don't worry about it," Steve responded. "Yes, I suspect Leadbetter does have rather a lot to do with them, but I don't know exactly what." He frowned thoughtfully. "Leadbetter made his escape in a hurry, so he must have guessed something was about to happen to him, but what?"

"Someone might be after him to learn secrets about the State finances," Danny hazarded.

"Almost everything is available for the public to look at on request," Steve contradicted. "I doubt if there's much that he knows that the average man on the street couldn't find out."

"So maybe someone recognised him as … whoever he was before he became Leadbetter," Danny suggested thoughtfully. "That still leaves us with the question of who he was before."

"We need to concentrate on finding him," Steve said. "Once we find him, we can find out what is going on."

"Yes, of course." Danny glanced out of the car window. "Where are we going?" he asked suspiciously.

"You're going to get that hand checked out," Steve replied sternly. "It could be broken."

"Steve, my hand is fine!" Danny objected, but Steve scowled instead of looking reassured.

"Doc is going to look at it – and you – before you go home and get some rest," the lead detective countered.

"They didn't hurt me, Steve," Danny replied softly. "I'm all right."

"I'll believe it when Doc tells me it's so," Steve retorted tightly.

Subsiding, Danny knew he wouldn't win this. He opted to save his energies for the next battle – persuading Steve that he did not need to go home to rest. Sure, he was a bit tired, but he was a long way from needing to lie down and sleep.

The ER doctor began to examine Danny while Steve summoned Dr Bergman from the morgue. He sent Danny for an x-ray of his hand, but agreed that he didn't think it was broken either. The x-rays confirmed that. Other than some fading red marks from the handcuffs, Danny passed the examination with flying colours. "He's fine, Steve," Doc assured the anxious detective. "The hand isn't broken. I don't see a need to dress it. It looks clean enough. Ice it to reduce the swelling and if it starts to hurt more or get red around the scabs come back. Otherwise, just take it easy."

"Thanks, Doc," Danny replied, sliding off the exam table and flashing Steve a grin.

The tall man was silent as they walked back to the car. He only spoke when they were both inside. "You're going home to rest, Danno," he decreed. "Come back tomorrow."

"I'll go home, shower and change, but I'm coming back to the office," Danny argued. "Steve, this case is too important for me to take time off. I'm fine – the doc said so!" He glared at Steve, who glared right back.

"Danno, you're exhausted," Steve snapped. "You look like hell!"

"So what?" Danny retorted. "Leadbetter could be dead! What does it matter what I look like? I'm not that tired!"

"Danno…" Steve began ominously, then turned his head away, shut his jaw decisively and started the car. "I'm taking you home."

"Where I'll shower and change and then I'll see you at the office," Danny asserted. He set his own jaw. "You can't stop me!"

"I wouldn't count on that," Steve gritted.

"So what are you going to do?" Danny asked. "Fire me? Handcuff me to my bed? I've had enough of handcuffs over the last 12 hours or so, thank you very much."

Abruptly, the anger drained out of Steve. Danny was indeed all right; the doctor had said so. He was also an adult and well able to decide for himself if he was okay to work. Besides, Steve wanted Danny there as they worked on this case together. "All right," he capitulated. "Come to the office once you've changed. Have a sleep first if you need it."

"I don't," Danny assured him. "Mahalo, Steve."

His boss shot him a sideways look and returned his attention to the traffic. Their brief disagreement was over and there was nothing to forgive. Now they could focus their full attention on finding Brian Leadbetter.


	6. Chapter 6

"Danny!" Kono hurried over to give Danny a welcoming thump on the shoulder, smiling broadly. "You okay, bruddah?"

"I'm fine," Danny assured him and grinned at Chin, who rested a paternal hand on his shoulder, visually checking him over.

"What happened to your hand, Danny?" Chin asked, pointing to the bruised appendage.

"My temper," Danny admitted wryly, wrapping his arms around Jenny, who was hugging him enthusiastically. "Its not that I don't appreciate the welcome – I do – but I haven't been gone that long!"

"You were missing almost 18 hours!" Jenny informed him indignantly. "We were worried about you. You could have been dead!"

While Danny knew he had been missing overnight, he hadn't quite caught up with the time of day and hadn't realised how late in the morning it was. "I'm sorry," he apologised contritely, squeezing the diminutive secretary. "I would have been back sooner, but Steve made me see Doc and I had to change."

"As long as you're all right," Jenny replied forgivingly.

"And now that the prodigal son has returned, can we get back to business?" Steve requested mildly. "Jenny, could you bring us some coffee?"

"Sure, Steve," she agreed and started gathering mugs. The detectives followed Steve into his office and sat by the big desk. Danny perched on the corner, as was his wont. Steve was pleased to see the younger man looked refreshed after his shower and change of clothes.

"Chin; Kono. What do we have?" he asked.

"We looked into the firm Leadbetter works for," Chin began. "They were first established over on the Big Island and moved here 20 years ago. The original partners are retired now and their sons currently run the firm. Brian Leadbetter apparently arrived from Ohio 10 years ago to take up a position as head financier and accountant. The firm flourished with him working for them and he was made a full partner five years ago."

"I looked into Crane and Dobson," Kono picked up the tale. "Dey started the firm at the end of the depression. Money was tight an' dey almost went under a few times, but dey were lucky to set up right when dey did. Right place at the right time an' all dat. Da sons run the firm. Crane junior plays a lot of golf. He's married to a haole wahine from da mainland and has four children. He's clean, boss. He ain't even had a parking ticket." Kono sounded slightly disappointed at that.

"Dobson junior is a bachelor," added Chin. "He's got a reputation as a playboy and is often featured in the society pages of the newspapers. He's had a couple of run-ins with the law for being drunk and disorderly. He was fined both times. He has also been sued for child support by three different women who claimed he was the father of their child. He paid up each time and there has been no further action by them, so I assume he is still paying." He lowered his notebook. "As far as we can find without examining the firm's books, they are squeaky clean. Their credit is good and they have a stellar reputation."

"I'll see if John Manicote can get us a warrant to examine their books," Steve said. "Good work."

"You've done a lot," Danny commented, his admiration clear in his tone.

"There was a lot of hours to fill last night, bruddah," Kono told him solemnly.

The animation faded from Danny's face as he thought of what those hours must have been like for his friends. He had been on that side of the fence before and it never came easy. "I'm sorry," he offered.

"Ain't your fault, bruddah," Kono assured him. "It was them Feds that took you!"

"So what's our next move?" Steve asked, not wanting anyone to ask too closely about the group who had taken Danny.

"I think we need to speak to the partners," Danny proposed. "See if they can shed any light on the matter."

"I got someone from HPD to go over Leadbetter's recent mail," Chin added. "The secretary, Miss Brodie, hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but you never know; something might turn up."

"Good thinking," Steve praised. "Kono, since you did the research, why don't you look into the partners' sons?" he suggested.

For a moment, Danny felt rather put out. He knew Steve wanted him to stay close to the office and understood the older man's protective feelings, but he wanted to be doing something. Then a thought occurred to him. "I'm going to look into Mrs Leadbetter's background," he announced.

"That's a good idea, Danno," Steve agreed. It didn't sound too strenuous and a lot of it could be done in the office or down at HPD headquarters. Either way, Danny would not be out pounding the streets and Steve could keep tabs on him. "Let's get moving." He tapped a file on his desk. "I want to read what we've got so far."

As the men rose to head to their tasks, Steve watched Danny critically for a moment, but his young friend was moving easily and he laughed at something Kono said to him in an undertone and relaxed. Danny knew his limitations and would not exceed them, he was sure. He was almost sure at any rate. He vowed again to keep a close eye on his second in command.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Danny already knew that the Leadbetters had come from the mainland. Checking Brian Leadbetter's file, he discovered that he and Mrs Leadbetter, Judith, had been married just before they came out to the island. She was several years younger than her husband and they had no children living. The still birth of a baby boy was registered two years before.

Using the information he had, Danny started another game of phone tag. He hoped that one day, there would be a way to access this kind of information via a computer, although he had no idea how that might work. Still, he spoke to Ohio about Judith's birth certificate and any other relevant information. They promised to call him back and get copies of anything to him as soon as possible.

Next step along the way was to contact the local newspaper and ask if they had anything about Judith in their archives. He provided her maiden name – Mann – and they also promised to contact him. He wasn't hopeful about hearing anything that day, though; it was lunch time in Hawaii and so the working day would be winding down over towards the east coast.

However, a few minutes later the phone rang and it was for Danny from Ohio. "Mr Williams, my name is Richard Collins. I am a librarian in Troy, Ohio. I believe you are asking about Judith Mann."

"That's right," Danny replied, warily. "Can you help me?"

"Yes, I can," Collins answered. "Mr Williams, I was once engaged to be married to Judith Mann."


	7. Chapter 7

A flush of colour and an air of excitement had wiped the fatigue from Danny's face. As he burst into Steve's office with barely a tap at the door – a courtesy that Steve did not demand from his second but which Danny refused to drop – Steve wondered what had the younger man so het up. "What is it?" Steve asked, putting aside the file he was perusing.

"I've just been talking to a man called Richard Collins on the phone," Danny explained. "He's flying out to Hawaii this evening."

"How does this help us?" Steve interrupted.

Sitting down, Danny grinned. "I was researching Judith Leadbetter," he replied. "I phoned the usual sources, but I didn't expect to hear anything until tomorrow with the time difference. Then I got this phone call. Mr Collins dated Judith Mann, as she was then, for several years. He proposed to her and she accepted. He went away to a conference – he's a librarian – and when he came back, he discovered that Judith had got married." Danny's excitement was obvious, but Steve couldn't see any relevance to the case. However, he knew his man well enough to know that there was a point to his story, even if Steve couldn't see it.

"And?" he prompted.

"And when he went to see who Judith had married, he got rather a nasty shock, as it was him name on the marriage certificate and the signature was enough like his to pass muster." Danny grinned. "Wait for it," he cautioned as Steve was about to interrupt again. "It was then that he discovered that his long-gone, black-sheep of a brother had returned to their home town during his absence. Collins had mentioned to Judith that he had a brother, but he hadn't told her that…"

By now, Steve could see where this was going. "An identical twin," Steve breathed. "Leadbetter?"

"In the flesh," Danny agreed. "Collins sent me a photo of the two of them. It is more than a decade old, of course, but look." Danny brandished the picture he had just been sent and also the current one of Leadbetter. Despite the passage of 15 years or so between the two shots, Leadbetter was unmistakable. Actually, Steve had less than no idea which of the two men was Leadbetter, which went some way to explaining why Judith had not known the difference.

"So what is his real name?" Steve asked.

"Neil Collins," Danny replied. He sobered abruptly. "I've put out some enquiries on his real name, so if I disappear again, you'll know where to come looking for me." He was trying to make a joke out of it, but he didn't think it was funny. Steve had managed to get him out the last time, but there was no guarantee that he would be able to do so again.

"Good work, Danno," Steve praised. "I want you to stick with me for the moment, so that nothing happens to you."

"Thanks, Steve." Danny had lost a lot of his animation now and looked tired again. "Neil and Judith were last seen boarding a flight for Los Angeles. Of course, at the time, everyone thought it was Richard. The Collins parents were both dead by this time, so there was no one to say that this was not Richard that Judith had married."

"We have to presume that somewhere along the line, Judith realised that this was not Richard," Steve speculated. "He wouldn't have known all the details of their courtship for a start. Somehow he had to persuade her to stay with him regardless. I wonder what lever he used?"

"I'll go out and talk to her again," Danny said, rising.

"Not tonight, Danno," Steve objected. "You've had a long day and you need to get something to eat and some rest."

"I'm fine…" Danny protested.

"You need to rest!" Steve declared flatly. "If you're going to interview Judith and meet Collins from the plane, you need to rest."

"All right," Danny agreed. He was tired and now that he had nothing else to do, it swept over him like a tidal wave.

Pushing aside the file he had been reading, Steve rose to his feet. "Come on," he suggested brusquely. "I'm taking you home."

"You don't need to do that," Danny protested behind a yawn. "I've got the car here."

"You're not driving tonight," Steve told him. "I'll take you home and collect you in the morning." They walked to the door together and Danny grabbed his jacket out of his cubicle. "Have you got Collins' flight details?"

"It's going to be tomorrow afternoon before he gets here," Danny replied. "Travelling at such short notice, he's got a couple of changes to make en-route." He glanced at the paper he had with the details on it. "He won't get here until 2pm." He copied them down and handed the second paper to Steve.

Pocketing it, Steve shepherded his detective out of the office. Everyone else had gone home already. As usual, it was just he and Danny burning the midnight oil. Just for a change, it wasn't actually midnight, but 7pm was more than late enough after the kind of day and night Danny had had the previous day.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There were no mysterious knocks on the door, no dark-suited men lying in wait for him when he returned home. Steve had stopped for take-out for them both along the way and they ate together at Danny's before Steve headed for home, admonishing the younger man to get some sleep. Danny was only too happy to oblige.

A good night's sleep refreshed him and when Steve collected him the next morning, he was pleased to see Danny looking completely like himself. They had the usual morning briefing and Chin reported that so far, the firm's books were looking clean. Kono was still digging further into the sons and was going to interview them that morning. With the briefing complete, Danny headed off to interview Judith.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The change in her from the drugged woman of a few days before was remarkable. Her eyes were clear and she wore a brightly coloured sun dress with short sleeves. "Detective Williams. How nice to see you again." She let him in herself and made him coffee, leading him through to the sunny kitchen to do so.

"No housekeeper today?" he asked, glancing around. The rigidly clean and spotless kitchen seemed more homely to him than it had the other day.

"No," Judith replied. "I let her go."

"Oh." A thousand questions shot through Danny's brain and he wondered which of them he should air to start with.

It was entirely possible that each and every question showed on Danny's face. Steve was always accusing him of being unable to hide his thoughts. Judith laughed. "I hadn't realised how oppressive my life had become," she explained. "I woke in the middle of the night – not last night, but the night after Brian had disappeared – and realised that I felt lighter, knowing that he wasn't coming home. I got up and came downstairs to make myself some tea." She made a face. "Everything had been moved around in the cupboards and that annoyed me. When we moved in here, I put things just where I wanted them and that woman had had the cheek to move everything." She sighed. "So I was hunting through the cupboards for the teabags and mugs and I found a vial of pills. They had my name on them, but I don't remember having them prescribed for me." She looked at Danny. "I'm not mad, Mr Williams. I know that for the last few years I've been locked up in my grief for the baby, but I would remember having medication prescribed for me."

"I'm sure you would," Danny agreed. He could see where this was going, and was interested to see what Judith had made of the situation.

"The only person who could have persuaded my doctor that I needed to take these tranquilisers every day is Brian. He must have then told Mrs Jennings to put them into my food or my tea. No wonder I wasn't able to function very well." She put a mug of coffee down in front of him and he saw her hand was shaking. She noticed him noticing. "Yes, I'm having some withdrawal symptoms," she agreed. "But I don't want to live in a fog. Not any more."

"Mrs Leadbetter, there are some questions I have to ask you," Danny ventured.

"Go ahead," she agreed. "It's about Brian, isn't it? How he came to be called Brian Leadbetter instead of Neil Collins?"

"Yes," Danny admitted, slightly surprised that she admitted it all so readily.

"It is rather a long story," she replied quietly. "Let's go and have a comfortable seat and I'll tell you everything I know."


	8. Chapter 8

"I met Richard about 15 years or so ago," she began. "We dated casually to begin with." She smiled deprecatingly. "I wasn't the prettiest girl in town, nor the youngest. I knew that, but love blossomed between us. I knew that Richard was thinking of proposing. He was a gentleman and I knew he had spoken to my father. One night, we went out for dinner and he went down on one knee. I accepted." She flushed, remembering and turned her solitaire diamond on her finger. "Librarians don't make much money, but I didn't need much." Judith glanced around the nice house she lived in. "This is lovely, but I don't need this. Anyway, Richard had to go away to a conference. He was to be gone for two weeks and when he returned, we were going to sit down with our families and plan our wedding."

"That didn't happen," Danny prompted her when she paused.

"No," she agreed. "Richard returned early. He seemed different – nervous. When I questioned him, he said that he had been a witness to a crime and he was going to be going into the Witness Protection Programme. He wanted us to be together, but we had to get married straight away and leave for Los Angeles. When we got there, we would be spirited away and given our new identities." She sighed. "I was young and in love and I agreed. Richard told me that if we didn't get married at once, he would never be able to see me again. I couldn't bear the thought of that and agreed at once. We were married and left for Los Angeles." A shudder wracked her and she put down her mug before anything could spill.

"Are you all right?" Danny asked, desperate for her to continue, but unwilling to press her more than she could take.

"I'm fine," she replied, not altogether convincingly. "Just… give me a moment, please." She rose unsteadily and Danny rose with her. She nodded and left the room for a moment. Danny sat down again and Judith returned in a few moments. She looked pale, but composed. "Excuse me," she murmured and resumed her seat. "We went to Los Angeles," she resumed. "We went to a motel and it was then that I truly realised that this was not Richard."

"How so?" Danny asked. "I'm sorry if that is too personal a question, but if you could tell me something that would help me, that would be great."

Looking away, colour rose in her cheeks. "Richard and I had been … intimate," she replied. "He has a mole…" She made a brushing motion with her hand near her cheek. "Well, suffice to say that Neil does not have that mole," she declared, speaking very fast, as though that would lessen the embarrassment. "That explained the inconsistencies in his behaviour that I thought were just due to being frightened and being hidden away."

This kind of conversation must have been a voyeur's dream, Danny thought, feeling the colour mounting in his own cheeks. He knew he had to ask what happened next if Judith didn't volunteer the information, but he felt like he was prying. Danny loved detective work, but this side of it always left him feeling uncomfortable.

However, Judith, having taken a sip of her coffee, went on with the story. Danny could not get over the contrast between the drugged, vague woman he had spoken to only a few short days before. "I confronted him, of course," she said. "You have to realise, I didn't know that Richard had an identical twin. I knew he had a brother and that they didn't talk, but he never mentioned they were twins. I was furious! I could have ripped Neil's eyes out. I demanded to know what he was playing at." She shook her head and took another sip of coffee. "He told me that the mob were after him. He had got a job in Chicago and then found that he was implicated in some serious trouble with the mob. He agreed to turn state's evidence in return for a new name and a new life. He was to disappear, and to help put the mob off his trail, he was to pretend to be Richard for a few days." Her voice hardened and she couldn't keep the bitterness out of her tone. "So he returned home, pretending to be Richard and that the conference had finished early. He learned that Richard had proposed to me and to put the mob further off his scent, he decided to marry me."

Rising to her feet, Judith crossed to the window. "He told me that I couldn't leave him. If I did, I would put Richard in jeopardy. Richard genuinely didn't know about Neil's troubles and if the mob should pay him a visit, it would be easy to prove that he was not in town. I don't know if that ever happened or not. Men in dark suits came, and although Neil insisted they were from Witness Protection, I never believed that. I never saw any identification and I was afraid of them. I always felt they weren't completely straight – that they would do whatever was needed to get what they wanted, even if it was illegal."

"I know exactly what you mean," Danny told her with feeling.

"They gave Neil a new name. I was allowed to keep my name, although I never quite understood why. I suppose it was because to all intents and purposes, I had married Richard. I was told in no uncertain terms that leaving Neil was impossible and to be honest, I was so afraid of what they might do, I didn't try." Danny quite understood that sentiment as well, although he didn't say so. "Those men always seemed to be around. So we decided to try and make the best of the marriage, even though it was fraudulent. Neil worked in Los Angeles for a while, and then got a job out here 10 years ago." She raised troubled eyes to Danny. "I had hoped that we would have children, but for years no child came and then when I did become pregnant, it was very stressful and I was quite ill throughout. Our baby was born after a difficult labour and he only lived a few hours." Tears trembled on her lashes, but she blinked them away. "I guess after that, Neil started drugging me."

"Thank you for telling me," Danny said after a few moments. "That can't have been easy."

"Mr Williams, even though those men in dark suits have never been far away, I think that Neil has become caught up in something illegal again," Judith offered hesitantly. "A few times, I have come into the room and he's ended a call suddenly and he's had a few letters arrived from Chicago, too. Is that why he's run away? Is he in trouble again?"

"I don't know for sure," Danny replied. "We're still looking into that, but I think it's quite likely, especially from what you've just told me. Mrs Leadbetter…"

"Judith," she interrupted. "Or Miss Mann. I'm not Mrs Leadbetter really, or even Mrs Collins." It was a very brave statement.

"Judith," Danny smiled, the warmth in his tones conveying his appreciation of what she had just said, "I am going to get a police guard down here for you right away. I don't think anyone would do you any harm, but I don't want to take that chance. May I use your phone?"

"Of course. Would you like more coffee?" She rose gracefully, but Danny could see the faint tremble in all her limbs.

"No, thank you, I'm fine." Danny crossed to the phone and put in a call to HPD asking for a guard. He would wait with Judith until someone arrived. He was not happy leaving her alone, knowing that the men in the dark suits were involved with this. There was, perhaps, little he could do should they come for her right now, but he hoped a uniformed officer would maybe deter them slightly. He might be over-reacting, but he would rather that than let something happen to her.

It didn't take long for a couple of uniformed men to arrive. He had no idea who had decided on who the guards should be, but he was pleased that one of them was Chinough Olena. Danny had known Olena for quite a few years, as they were both sharpshooters. Chinough was laid back with a keen sense of humour. He was married with a child and he adored his family. He was also sensitive enough to be tactful during Judith's tougher moments and Danny thought he was a great choice for guard duty. The other officer was one Danny didn't know so well, Officer George Baker. He was a good, solid officer who was more than happy to pound the beat and not have to deal with too much paperwork. Danny was satisfied that Judith was in good hands. He bid her farewell, unnecessarily reminding Chinough and George to keep a close eye on her.

"You know how good my eye is," Chinough teased. "Better than yours!"

"In your dreams," Danny retorted and left with Chinough's laugh ringing in his ears.


	9. Chapter 9

"Where's Danno?" Steve asked, sweeping into the outer office and seeing at once that only Kono's cubicle was occupied.

"Been and gone, Steve," Jenny replied. "He left you a note." She didn't add that the younger detective had seemed disappointed that Steve was not there and excited about something. "It's on your desk."

"Thank you," Steve told her. "Kono, what have you got?" he asked, heading into his office in search of Danny's note. Kono followed, hastily swallowing the last of his lunch-time sandwich.

"Both da sons is clean, boss," he reported. "I spoke to dem both and to their secretaries. Dey ain't in da office too often," he added. "Da secretaries complain dey do all da work and da sons take all da glory." Kono shook his head in sympathy with the secretaries. "I don't tink dey know what's goin' on in da company."

For most men, saying that they 'thought' something usually implied that they weren't sure. For Kono, that wasn't true. If he didn't know something, he said so in no uncertain terms. Kono saying he 'thought' something usually meant that it was cast in stone. Steve appreciated the Hawaiian's turn of phrase, although he knew not everyone liked it. He had been told flat out that he was making a serious mistake when he chose Kono for Five-O. Several people had told him that Kono was dumb. Steve trusted his instincts and the big man had more than proved his worth since then.

"Great," Steve replied. He quickly skimmed Danny's note. "Kono, I'd like you to go out to the airport and join Danno. I'll arrange a safe house for Mr Collins. I'll contact you with the location and you shadow Danno there and stay with him until the HPD guard arrives."

"Sure, boss." Kono got to his feet and fixed Steve with a concerned look. "You tink da Feds is gonna try something?"

"I hope not," Steve replied, but Kono's concern prompted him to be honest. "But I would put nothing past them."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After Kono left, Steve read Danny's brief note again. The younger detective went into no real detail about what he had learned from Judith Leadbetter; instead he said that he was making progress, had set Judith up with a guard and that he was going to meet Richard Collins from the airport. It was annoyingly short and scarce of the details that Steve wanted to know and Steve wished that he had not had his usual meeting with the Governor when Danny had been in the office.

The covert department that had taken Danny a couple of days before were never far from Steve's thoughts. They had been told by their masters in Washington and by Steve to keep their distance from this case, but he suspected that they were involved up to their ears and would resurface at some point. He just hoped that when they did, they did not do another vanishing act with Brian Leadbetter. From the little Steve had learned about the unit from Jonathan Kaye, Steve would put nothing past them. They operated on both sides of the law and that was something that worried Steve.

Shoving that grim thought aside, he set about arranging for a safe house.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Honolulu airport always seemed to be busy these days, Danny thought as he pushed his way through a crowd of tourists waiting to get on a coach. He felt rather conspicuous in his suit when almost everyone else in sight was wearing brightly coloured shirts and dresses. Someone tried to give him a lei, but he managed to duck away from them. Leis had their place, but not on him today.

The flight he was meeting was a few minutes away from landing. Danny identified himself to airport security and they allowed him to go out onto the tarmac to wait there for the plane. It was pleasantly shady and Danny enjoyed the few minutes of peace, watching the large aircraft come in for a text book landing.

It was easy to identify Richard Collins. He looked exactly like the snap of Brian Leadbetter. It was quite uncanny. Danny had never known identical twins. There had been a set of twins in high school, but they were several years younger than Danny. As he stepped forward to identify himself, he wondered how easy it would be to tell the two men apart when they were finally together in the same room. "Mr Collins, I'm Dan Williams; Five-O. We spoke on the telephone." Danny flashed his badge.

"Nice to meet you," Collins replied. "Have you found my brother?" He looked tired and bedraggled and knowing of the convoluted route he had travelled to reach the island, Danny was not at all surprised.

"Not yet," he replied.

"Is he still here?" Collins asked as Danny led him through the terminal.

"To the best of our knowledge, yes," Danny said. "I would expect him to surface in the next day or two. We haven't publicised his disappearance, so we're hoping he thinks he has managed to elude detection and will come out of hiding. Then we'll find out what has been going on."

"And Judith?" Collins sounded anxious. "How is she?"

"She's all right," Danny assured him.

"Can I see her?" Collins asked.

It was a question that Danny had been expecting, but he was unsure how to answer it. "Not right away," he hedged finally. "But you will be able to meet her at some point." He led the way to the baggage claim.

That was where Kono joined them. Danny was surprised to see his colleague, but hid it, introducing the Hawaiian detective to Collins as though he had expected to meet him there. As Collins stepped forward to grab his bag, Danny leaned closer to Kono. "Is there a problem?" he asked quietly, feeling uneasy.

"Steve's just being careful," Kono assured him. "He wants a safe house so da Feds don't interfere. He don't want dem messin' with you again."

That was typical of Steve's protectiveness towards hi men and it did give Danny a sense of security to know that Kono had his back. "Mahalo," he offered.

"No biggie, bruddah," Kono replied casually. "Dunno why, but we don't mind havin' you under foot." He laughed as Danny rolled his eyes.

With Collins and his luggage in tow, they walked back to the cars. Danny noticed that Kono was watching their surroundings closely and wondered if Steve had told the other detective about a positive or potential threat from the agency that had grabbed him, or if it was just a gut feeling Steve had. Either way, Danny was thankful that Steve was on his side and he vowed to be careful.

Danny's radio was squawking his name as he opened the door and he responded at once. "Williams here."

"I'm glad I caught you, Danno," Steve replied. "Is Kono with you?"

"He's right here," Danny assured his boss.

"Good. Danno, take Mr Collins to safe house three. Get Kono to stay with him and you come back to the office as soon as you can."

"10-4," Danny acknowledged. He was keen to ask what was up, but knew that Steve wouldn't want to discuss it on the air.

"A safe house?" Collins asked as they started driving. "Why?"

"We still don't know the exact circumstances surrounding your brother's disappearance," Danny replied patiently. "We wouldn't want any harm to come to you because of a case of mistaken identity. It could be your brother disappeared for a completely innocent reason, but until we know for sure, we can't take any chances."

"Of course, I hadn't thought of that," Collins replied. He looked out of the window with evident interest and Danny was more than happy to act as a tourist guide and point out the various landmarks of his beautiful island home.

The safe house was a small bungalow, set back slightly from the beach. It had a small secluded garden which caught the sun all day and was comfortably furnished. It was stocked with basic food stuffs and Kono pulled into the local supermarket to get some milk. It was not situated right in the heart of the Waikiki tourist area, but it was close enough that there were tourists around. As soon as Kono arrived, Danny took his leave. He knew that HPD would provide discreet cover for this man, too.

Arriving back at the Palace, Danny went right in to Steve's office. Chin was already there.

"Hi, bruddahs," Danny said, taking the seat next to Chin. "Collins is at the safe house, Steve."

"Good. Chin, why don't you tell Danno what you just told me?" Steve requested.

"I've been looking into the finances of Dobson, Crane and Leadbetter," Chin reminded his colleague. Danny nodded. "The fraud specialist is still working, but so far their books are clean. There isn't a single red cent unaccounted for."

"How far back have you gone?" Danny asked. Somehow, he wasn't surprised by this news. Nothing about this case was turning out to be as they had suspected at the beginning.

"About five years in depth and we've dipped into other years right up to the time they moved to Honolulu," Chin replied. "The books aren't perfect, but they appear to be genuine."

"You don't look surprised, Danno," Steve observed.

"I'm not," Danny agreed. "I'd have been more surprised if there had been signs of embezzlement or fraud. The more I learn, the more convinced I am that Leadbetter wasn't kidnapped. I think he ran away."

Rising, Steve walked around the desk to lean on the front. He looked at Danny keenly. "What makes you say that?"

"Mostly it's because of Judith's story," Danny replied. He told them what he had learned from Judith that morning. "I don't for a single instant believe in the witness protection story," he went on, "but I'm sure that Neil Collins was running away from someone or something. I think that whatever or whoever it was has caught up to him again. I suspect the letters from Chicago are letters warning him of his danger. He needed a little time to get a plan together before he decided to run for it again. This time, for whatever reason, he decided that Judith is not in danger and so he left her behind."

For a long moment, Steve said nothing, mulling over Danny's theory. It was at this point in a conversation that Danny might start to pull back, his puzzling lack of self-confidence suddenly coming to the fore, but Steve allowed him no time for that. "It fits," he agreed. "It really fits." He fixed Danny with a thoughtful look. "What do you think it is?" he asked.

"Until we find Leadbetter," Danny replied apologetically, "I haven't got the faintest idea."


	10. Chapter 10

They were still in the office, proposing theories, when Kono returned. "He all settled in," Kono reported. "Seems like a nice guy."

"Seems so," Danny agreed. "He wants to see Judith," he added, directing the comment towards Steve, "but I said he had to wait." Steve nodded. "Judith has enough to deal with at the moment."

"You like her, don't you?" Steve asked.

"Yes," Danny nodded. "She's a very brave lady." He caught the hint of a grin on Kono's face. "I don't like her like that," he chided the Hawaiian detective.

"I never said nuthin'," Kono denied.

Moments like this were necessary to keep everyone sane, but Steve was not in the mood for it on this day and was about to put a stop to it when Jenny stuck her head around the door. "Sorry, boss, but there's a call for Danny."

"Thanks, Jenny," Steve said, as Danny rose to go and take the call. He glanced at the clock and realised that Jenny should be heading for home. "See you in the morning, love," he smiled. The petite redhead smiled back.

"Good night," she replied.

Entering his cubicle, Danny picked up the phone. "Williams."

"Detective Williams, I am Brian Leadbetter," replied the caller.

At once, Danny's heart rate speeded up. This was beyond his wildest dreams. "Mr Leadbetter, I was hoping to hear from you." The voice sounded exactly like Richard Collins. "Please tell me where you are. I can offer you protection."

"I doubt that," Leadbetter scoffed. "I've been warned that my life is in danger and if he has tracked me here, there's nothing you can do to stop him killing me. I have to get away from this rock, but I am told that Five-O has locked the island down."

"Who is looking for you?" Danny asked.

"For all I know, you could be working with him," Leadbetter continued, ignoring the question. "Your boss's interference caused my minders to back off and I'm vulnerable. If you hadn't got him to release you, I could have been spirited away to safety by now."

This was confusing. "Wait," Danny begged. "I don't understand. What are you talking about? Those agents – they're your minders? Who are they protecting you from?"

"You seem to have managed to find out plenty about me," Leadbetter snarled. "Are you really telling me that you don't know who is after me?"

"Let me prove I'm on your side," Danny suggested. "I'll meet you and bring you back here safely."

"All right, I'll meet you," Leadbetter agreed after a moment. "Come alone. I'll meet you by the entrance to the zoo. How fast can you get there?"

"About 15 or 20 minutes," Danny guessed, thinking of the time of day and the traffic.

"I'll be waiting," Leadbetter agreed. "And you'd better be alone." The line went dead.

"Who was that, Danno?" Steve asked.

"Leadbetter," Danny replied and filled Steve in on the confusing conversation.

"It's too risky to go alone," Steve objected, although he was pretty notorious for going to meetings like this alone.

"We don't have time to put anything in place," Danny objected. The seconds were ticking away quickly. "Steve, I'll be fine."

"I'm following you," Steve insisted stubbornly. "I'll stay back, but you are not going alone. We know nothing about this man."

There was no time to argue. Danny knew he wouldn't win anyway. He nodded. Steve told the other two detectives to go home He would call them if he needed them. Then he and Danny hurried to their respective cars and headed towards the zoo.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The zoo was already closed. Danny parked in the car park and walked towards the entrance. There were still people in the park, but they were further down and heading towards home. Tomorrow was a school day and there were no children left in the park. They would be already at home, having supper, doing homework and thinking about going to bed.

There was nobody in sight. Danny stopped, glancing around. He was sure that Leadbetter would be concealed somewhere nearby, checking to make sure that he had come alone. Danny hoped that Steve would not choose the same patch of concealment as Leadbetter. That would surely set the cat among the pigeons!

A flicker of movement at the corner of his eye made Danny look in that direction and he saw Leadbetter coming towards him. It was eerie to realise that this was not Richard Collins, the man he had met only that afternoon, but his identical twin brother. Danny realised that he could not tell them apart. For all he knew, this was Collins. "Mr Leadbetter?" he asked.

Nodding, the other man drew nearer, looking around suspiciously. "You came alone?" he queried.

"Yes," Danny replied, fighting the urge to cross his fingers because he was lying. "Mr Leadbetter, please, tell me who is after you. I can't protect you against this person unless I know who it is."

Instead of replying, Leadbetter searched Danny's face. "You really don't know, do you?" he breathed. He glanced around once more. "Let's walk while we talk," he suggested.

"My car is over this way," Danny began, but Leadbetter shook his head.

"No; I can't risk being caught inside a car. Not yet." He turned in the opposite direction, towards Kalakaua Avenue. Danny had no choice but to follow. "I expect you know by now that my name is not really Brian Leadbetter," he began.

"Yes," Danny agreed. "You're really Neil Collins."

"Good," Leadbetter grunted. "I was a witness to a crime back in Chicago 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the person who committed this crime has powerful friends in high places. It was decided that I should disappear and to do so, it would be useful for me to assume my brother's identity. So I went back to Ohio and married Judith and we left."

"You know this person, don't you?" Danny challenged him.

"Yes, I know him," Leadbetter admitted. He glanced around suspiciously once more. "I need to get away from Hawaii, Mr Williams. Can you help me?"

"I probably can, but I need to know more than you've just told me," Danny replied. "Who is this man? What crime did you see him committing? I can't protect you if I don't know who I'm protecting you against."

"I suppose I have to trust you," Leadbetter mused. "You came alone, after all." Danny said nothing, feeling intensely guilty that Steve was lurking somewhere in the vicinity. "I…"

"What is it?" Danny asked as Leadbetter stopped speaking.

"There's someone…" Leadbetter was looking behind Danny, across Kalakaua Avenue.

A shot rang out and Danny felt the wind as it whizzed past his cheek, missing him by inches. Leadbetter ducked and Danny dived for cover at the same moment as the other man pushed him out of the way. Caught off balance, Danny was fumbling for his gun as he stumbled on the kerb. He lost his footing and started to fall. From nearby he heard another shot and then all he was aware of was the screech of brakes as a pair of headlights bearing down on him filled his vision!


	11. Chapter 11

From his position in concealment, much further away than he was happy about, Steve was frustrated that he couldn't hear the conversation between Danny and Leadbetter. Unfortunately, the man was too skilled to stay close to anything that might hide an assailant and Steve did not want to reveal himself and destroy any progress that Danny might be making.

When the indistinct figure with the gun appeared from nowhere on the other side of the road, Steve bolted from his hiding place, but he was already too late. The first shot had been fired and Danny was tumbling into the road. Forgetting the need for concealment, Steve raced towards them, knowing in his heart that he would be too late. Danny would die under the wheels of the car that was racing towards him, going far faster than the speed limit surely. "Danno!" he screamed.

Time seemed to slow, as Leadbetter threw himself at Danny, catching him under the arms and propelling both of them further onto the road. The car's brakes were screeching and it was fish-tailing all over the road. Steve felt as though he was running on the spot and getting nowhere as disaster bore down on his closest friend.

Moments later, Leadbetter and Danny crashed onto the road, rolling over and over. The car came to a stop, blocking Steve's view of his friend and he found his heart was in his mouth as he skidded to a standstill by the vehicle. The man who was driving the car was clinging to the steering wheel, his face as white as a sheet. "It wasn't my fault," he stuttered.

Steve had no time to spare for the distraught driver, yet he knew he had to say something. "I know," he replied, only belatedly aware that he had snapped when he should have soothed. "Stay there."

Rounding the car with his heart in his mouth, Steve found Danny on the road, just climbing to his feet. Of Leadbetter, there was no sign at all. At the moment, that didn't matter. All that mattered was his friend and Steve rushed to his side, unsure if he was going to help Danny or stop him from moving. "Danno!"

"I'm all right, Steve," Danny replied unsteadily. He rose shakily to his feet and was glad when Steve grabbed his arm in a show of support. "I'm fine."

The knee of Danny's suit pants was torn and the skin underneath was abraded and bleeding. His palms were covered in road rash and there was a raw patch on the point of his chin, but Danny was right; he hadn't been hit by the car and that could only be thanks to Brian Leadbetter.

Drawing a couple of deep breaths and regaining most of his usual calm, Danny glanced around. "Where's Leadbetter?" he asked. "He saved my life."

"I don't know," Steve replied. He glanced all around, seeing that the gunman had also vanished. "Go and sit down." He gestured around. "I'll deal with this mess."

"I'm fine," Danny reminded his boss, but Steve was adamant and Danny found himself sitting on the kerb while Steve reassured the driver who had nearly hit him that he was no in way to blame for the near accident. Danny probed his bleeding knee and decided that the damage to it was superficial, although his suit pants were beyond help. He felt shaky and sore and he was mad clean through that Leadbetter had disappeared. He owed the man his life and he wanted to help him. He wondered if he would get another chance.

With the car driver mollified, reassured and calm enough to drive, Steve sent the man on his way. He walked back to Danny, realising that darkness had fallen. It was impossible in the light cast by the street lamps to tell if Danny was pale or not, but either way, Steve knew their day was over.

"I'm not going to the hospital," Danny announced as Steve approached. "It's just a few scrapes."

Not commenting, Steve looked at him, but Danny did not back down. "Did I say anything about the hospital?" Steve enquired mildly. He helped Danny to his feet.

"I know you," Danny reminded him. He wanted to shake off Steve's supporting hand, because he really was fine and could walk by himself, but he didn't do that, because he knew that Steve needed the reassurance that Danny was fine and a helping hand under his elbow was a discreet way of doing that. The iron man of law enforcement had a very soft centre.

"Did you see Leadbetter run off?" Steve asked.

"Not really," Danny replied ruefully. "I was too busy rolling around on the road."

"What did he tell you?" Steve asked and Danny repeated the conversation. "You have to wonder who this person is that Leadbetter saw committing this crime," Steve mused after Danny had finished. "And what kind of crime it was."

"I wonder where he went," Danny sighed, looking around as though expecting Leadbetter to materialise out of the undergrowth. "I said I'd help him."

"I don't know where he went, but we keep looking for him and hope that he contacts us again." Steve opened the passenger door of his car. Danny baulked.

"Steve, I'm fine," he protested. "I can drive myself home quite easily."

"Humour me," Steve growled. "We can collect your car in the morning."

"I'm not going to the hospital," Danny reminded his boss as Steve gently shoved him into the car.

"I know," Steve replied through gritted teeth. As he climbed in behind the wheel, Steve reflected that his promise did not mean that he wouldn't be doing some first aid when he got Danny back to his apartment. He keyed the engine to life and swung out of his parking spot and into the traffic.

They hadn't gone more than a few yards when the radio squawked out Steve's name. Danny passed the mic over and Steve answered. It was a call from the HPD officer who was guarding Richard Collins. "Mr McGarrett! I've been trying to get hold of you or Mr Williams. I went to the can and when I came back Mr Collins was gone!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They raced through the dark streets of town and neither man's thoughts were comforting. What had happened to Richard Collins? Could someone have taken him thinking that he was Leadbetter? But who? Danny was infuriated that he had been unable to get more information from Leadbetter and even more annoyed with himself that his careless tumble into the road had caused them to lose their most important suspect – or was he a witness?

As they screeched to a halt outside the safe house, the cop on duty hurried out to meet them. His expression was a mixture of fear and relief. "What happened?" Steve demanded.

"He's back," the cop bleated. "Just a minute ago." He led the way inside and both Five-O detectives followed closely on his heels.

Richard Collins was standing in the living area of the bungalow and he looked totally perplexed. "Mr Collins!" Danny exclaimed, relief overwhelming him as he realised that the man was unharmed. He felt again the same confusion he had felt while talking to Leadbetter. It was as though the man he had just been talking with had suddenly appeared here, in different clothing. "Where were you?"

"I went out for a walk," Collins replied. "I wasn't gone that long."

"Why didn't you take your protection officer with you?" Steve demanded, furious with the man.

"I'm not under arrest," Collins protested. "I was only going for a walk."

"You've got a protection officer for a reason," Steve hissed. "Did you think it was just for show? Your life could be in danger if the person who is after your brother mistook you for him! Or didn't you think about that?"

For a moment, Danny thought Collins was going to start shouting back at Steve and he winced, not in the mood to intervene between the two angry men, but Collins suddenly seemed to think about what Steve had said and suddenly looked abashed. "No, I didn't think about that," he agreed lamely. "How embarrassing. I'm so sorry to have caused so much trouble."

Leaving Danny to deal with Collins, Steve turned his attention to the luckless protection officer and led him out of the room to find out exactly how long Collins had been gone. Danny didn't envy the cop. "Mr Collins, I thought I made it clear to you that you could be in danger here?" he reminded the man.

"Yes, you did," Collins agreed. "But I didn't see the harm in just going for a walk. After all, nobody knows I'm here, do they?"

"We don't know that," Danny argued. "We don't know who is behind your brother's disappearance and they could have eyes and ears all over the place. The airport is the obvious place to watch for arrivals and it isn't as if you and your brother don't look alike. Please, stay here with your guard, for your own safety."

"All right," Collins agreed grudgingly. He looked Danny over. "What happened to you? You look like you lost a fight."

"Nothing for you to worry about," Danny replied. He was suddenly wary of telling Collins he had just been speaking with Leadbetter, although quite why that should be he wasn't sure. "I'm fine." He turned to leave, seeing that Steve was finished 'chatting' with the cop. "And please don't leave here without an escort."

"Yes, yes," Collins replied impatiently. "I get the message." He gave Danny a sour look.

Exhaustion swept over Danny as he joined Steve by the door. Steve gave Collins a cold look. "I hope you take Detective Williams' words on board," he suggested as they took their leave.

"Yeah, yeah," Collins said again and Danny was no more convinced that the man would do as he was told than he had been the first time Collins 'agreed' with him.


	12. Chapter 12

Come morning, Danny was stiff and sore, but a hot shower loosened his muscles and a couple of aspirin sorted out his minor aches and he was feeling relatively cheerful when he arrived at the Palace. He endured the comments about his injured chin and hands, but the damage was all superficial and he was able to allay everyone's fears.

There had been no further walkabouts from Collins, and Danny decided that he needed to concentrate on trying to find Leadbetter again. He decided he would hit some of his snitches and see if they had any information he might find useful, but first of all, he called Judith's protection officer to make sure that she was all right and was relieved to learn that she was.

Before he could leave the office, Steve called for the daily meeting, running over the things they were investigating. There were a few things on their plates apart from Leadbetter and Steve delegated them to Chin and Kono and left Danny to get on with hunting down Leadbetter. He would oversee everything. The short meeting lasted about 15 minutes and Danny told Steve he was heading out to the streets. Steve gave him the usual admonition to be careful and Danny could feel his boss's eyes on his back as he left the office.

It was slow going on the street. Many of the people Danny counted on seeing in certain places were not there. Others turned up in very unexpected places and a couple of times, Danny came within a hair's breadth of having to arrest a snitch for a crime that he almost witnessed. It was a difficult road to travel – between usefulness and justice. Danny wouldn't hesitate to arrest one of his snitches for committing a crime if he caught them in the act, but he knew that the moment he did that, he would find that none of his snitches would ever talk to him again. So he turned a blind eye to the clear evidence of recent drug use in one snitch and pretended not to see that another snitch had clearly picked someone's pocket, but it was never easy.

It was a slow, discouraging morning. Danny leaned against his car and wondered where else to look for the snitch who, for the first time since Danny had started using him, was not in his accustomed cardboard box in a sleazy back alley. Rollo was chronically afraid of people, but for some reason trusted Danny. But anyone else who entered his self-imposed personal space, which varied from day to day, usually either met with a madman, attacking them for no reason, or ran away. Usually, he didn't go very far before returning when the intruder had departed. Danny never quite knew how Rollo seemed to know so much of what was going on in the underworld of Honolulu, but the snitch had never been wrong yet.

Behind him, his radio bleated out his call sign and Danny leaned through the open window to retrieve the mic. "Williams," he replied.

"Danno, its Steve. I've had a call from Judith Leadbetter asking if you could go out to see her at once. She says it's important and she sounds agitated, but she refused to talk to anyone but you." Even over the air, Steve sounded concerned.

"I'll go right away," Danny replied. "I'll let you know what's wrong as soon as I know."

"Be careful," Steve reminded Danny.

"I will," Danny agreed. He cast one last look back at Rollo's hideaway before climbing into his car and heading for the Leadbetter house.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Judith was indeed agitated. She met Danny at the door, wringing her hands unconsciously the whole time. "Danny, thank goodness you came so quickly."

"What's wrong, Judith?" Danny asked.

Glancing round, although the on-duty officer had stepped outside, Judith drew Danny further into the house so that they couldn't be overheard. "Danny, I got a phone call from Brian," she informed him.

"When?" Danny asked, all his senses on alert.

"This morning – about an hour ago," she guessed, glancing at the clock. "He wants to meet me."

"Do you know what he wants?" Danny asked.

"Yes; he wants me to go away with him. He thinks my life might be in danger." Judith drew in a deep breath, deliberately trying to calm herself.

"What does he want you to do?" Danny asked. This might be the break they were looking for.

"He wants me to ditch my guard and meet him in two hours at the place where they're going to be building that new mall. I have to pack some stuff and give my officer the slip." Judith looked at him. "I don't want to go with him, but I think I owe it to him to tell him why. What should I do? If I go to him, he'll assume I'm going with him, yet I don't have a number to call him back on and say I'm not going."

"I'll take you," Danny assured her. "I spoke to Brian briefly last night." He opted not to tell her the outcome of the meeting. "He'll recognise me and so won't panic." _I hope_, he thought. "Just let me phone Steve and then we can get going."

As he had expected, Steve insisted that he was going to flood the area with cops, as discreetly as was possible. He wasn't keen on Danny going with Judith, but agreed that it was the chance they had hoped would come. "One thing you need to know, Danno. Richard Collins gave his guard the slip again this morning. So far, we haven't had any sightings of him. I don't know what's going on with him, but just be on the lookout for him."

"I will," Danny promised, the disquiet in Steve's voice echoed by an uneasy feeling in his own gut. Collins had seemed to be on the up and up, but now, Danny had serious doubts about the man. Was he there just to see Judith? Or was he more intimately connected with Leadbetter's problems? He wouldn't know until he caught up with Collins and he just hoped he didn't do that the hard way.

"I'll be there, too, Danno," Steve said. "You won't see me, but I'll be there."

"Thanks, Steve," Danny replied, warmed by the knowledge that his friend had his back, as always. He hung up the phone. "All right, Judith, are you ready to go?"

"I'm scared to death," Judith admitted. "Does that mean I'm ready?"

Smiling, Danny took her arm. "As ready as you'll ever be," he assured her. "You'll be fine."

"All right, let's go," she sighed and he led her out to his car, dismissing her officer for the meantime. As he slid into the driver's seat, Danny reflected that he didn't blame Judith for being scared to death. He was pretty worried himself.


	13. Chapter 13

Traffic was a nightmare, thanks to an accident partially blocking the freeway. Judith grew visibly paler and more nervous and Danny had to fight not to let her nerves affect his own misgivings. He was not sure what would happen if they were late to the rendezvous, but he was glad that Steve would be there before them. If they couldn't get through, at least Steve would have the chance to apprehend the two men and find out what was going on.

Fortunately, they were able to squeeze past the accident and Danny put his foot down, knowing that his car was known by sight to all HPD officers and he wouldn't get stopped for speeding. As they neared the area, he pulled the car off the freeway and into the back streets, twisting and turning his way through them. Local knowledge was very useful at times like this.

He parked about half a block away. At the moment, there was no sign of anybody else, but they had a few minutes in hand. "Let's walk along," Danny suggested to Judith and took her hand to help her out of the car. "Take a deep breath," he advised her. "I won't let anyone hurt you."

"Thank you," she whispered, but she was still pale and trembling slightly.

They walked along the street and Danny glanced around, trying to spot Steve. There was no sign of his boss. A patrol car was parked several blocks further along the street they were on, but there was no immediate sign of any other police activity. Danny knew from experience that that did not mean there were no others cops around; they were just well hidden.

"Judith!" The call came from across the street and they both turned towards it instinctively. Leadbetter – or Collins, Danny did not know which – stood there, beckoning to them. For an instant, Judith clutched his hand, then let go as she started to cross the street.

"Brian?" she asked in a low voice as they reached his side.

"My dear, how are you?" Leadbetter asked in an unctuous voice. He nodded to Danny. "Williams."

Alarm bells were shrieking in Danny's head. There was something about this scenario that he didn't like, but he wasn't sure exactly what. Was this Leadbetter? Or was it Collins? Were the two men one and the same, despite what Judith had told him? He knew that Judith had said that Collins had a mole on his lower body, but Danny could hardly ask the man to drop his pants in the street so he could examine him. He nodded back, saying nothing.

"We need to go," Leadbetter told Judith. "Now. Where is your bag?"

"I didn't bring one," Judith replied.

"What?" The annoyance in the voice was as sharp as a whip. "You stupid woman! Can't you do anything that you're told?"

"I'm not coming with you," she replied bravely. "I've lived a lie long enough." She took a step back and held her head up. "I'm going to stay here."

Before Leadbetter could say anything, another man stepped around the corner. It was Collins. He was pointing a gun at them all. Danny blinked, tensing. He still didn't know which man was which, although there were slight differences between them now that he saw them together. Judith, however, didn't seem to have the same problem. "Richard!" she gasped, looking at the newcomer. "What are you doing with a gun?" She seemed stunned by the sight.

"My dear brother is right," Collins replied. "You are a remarkably stupid woman. You always were, my dear. I never loved you; I just used you. You were a useful cover for me. Who would suspect a boring librarian with a boring wife was really a government-sanctioned assassin?"

"What?" This time it was Danny's turn to gasp.

"Oh yes," Collins assured the detective. "My dear brother didn't get the chance to tell you everything last night. I don't normally miss, but everyone is allowed an off day. What a pity that car missed you both. It might have done my work for me. But I won't miss this time."

Before anyone could do more than draw in a breath, Collins calmly shot his brother in the back. Judith screamed and Danny, reacting without thought, pushed her to the ground and lunged for the assassin. Collins, however, had had years of experience in leaving crime scenes. He had been standing several feet away and that gave him a slight edge as he turned to run. Danny, disregarding the gun, went after him. He heard Judith sobbing and calling Leadbetter's name, but he had to hope someone else would help her. His job was to bring down the assassin.

They ran across the road and down a side street. Vaguely, Danny could hear sirens in the background. He had his own weapon in his hand and shouted, "Stop!"

Glancing briefly over his shoulder, Collins fired a wild shot. Danny ducked, but kept running. He didn't fire back. There was no point. He was a good marksman – even a great marksman – but he knew shooting while running was a waste of time and of a bullet. He pushed a bit more speed into his legs and dove at Collins. He caught the fleeing man around the legs and they both tumbled to the ground. Collins' gun flew from his fingers, but he didn't let that stop him. He swung a fist at Danny and caught him a glancing blow to the cheek. It was enough to knock Danny back and Collins scrambled to his feet again. Danny jumped up and they raced onto the concrete, rubble-strewn site where the new mall was to be built.

Danny tackled Collins again and they both crashed to the ground again. Collins had drawn a knife and Danny suddenly found himself in a fight for his life. He clutched Collins' arm and held the knife away from him, while he still tried to subdue the assassin. They rolled over and over, neither one getting an advantage over the other. Danny suddenly changed tactics, and used his free hand to smash Collins' hand just below his thumb. The surprise blow caused the knife to drop from Collins' hand and Collins reacted angrily, pushing Danny away. He scrabbled around him as Danny jumped back into the fray and his hand found a chunk of concrete. Without hesitating, he smashed Danny on the side of the head. The detective crumpled at once and Collins snatched up the knife once more, lifting it high above his head as he prepared to stab it into his helpless victim's heart.

But Danny was not alone. As the first shot rang out, the officer in the patrol car along the road immediately started his engine. Chinough Olena's heart was in his mouth. He didn't need Steve McGarrett's urging to respond to the shot; he was already in motion. His rifle was resting on the seat beside him, because you never knew if you would need it in a situation like this. He revved his car and headed for the scene. He saw Danny chasing someone and headed in that direction, seeing another car appearing at the crime scene ahead.

He skidded to a halt at the other side of the chain link fence that was supposed to keep intruders from the site. It was half falling down most of the way around and on the side where Danny and Collins had entered from, the fence had disappeared entirely. Chinough aimed his weapon, watching the fight through the crosshairs of his scope, but he couldn't shoot. Danny and the other man were too close. Sweating, anxious, Chinough gritted his teeth and willed himself to be calm. Danny needed his help and Chinough was going to be ready.

His chance came so suddenly that he almost wasn't ready. Danny went down, sprawled on his back, clearly unconscious. The other man raised a knife high overhead and Chinough did not hesitate. He went for the shot and saw, to his immense relief, the other man going down. He leapt to his feet, racing along the fence, keeping an eye on the perp as he hurried to secure the area. He knew he had hit the man, but he could still be alive and a possible danger to Danny. Chinough had to secure the scene!

Running footsteps alerted Chinough that he was not alone. Steve McGarrett was racing towards the downed men, his gun in his hand. He was that bit closer and reached the men before Chinough had rounded the end of the fence. He kicked the knife away and leaned over to check the assassin. Chinough had no idea what he found, but Steve immediately turned to his injured officer.

By now, there were other police on the scene. Chinough leaned over the perp and saw that his shot had killed the man. He felt sick, but this was not the first time he had killed someone. It got no easier and he stepped away, lowering his weapon. He had saved Danny's life – he hoped. He looked at Steve, suddenly anxious and stepped closer. "Is he…?"

"He's hurt," McGarrett reported tersely. "Someone get an ambulance!" He leaned over Danny again. "Danno? Can you hear me?"

There was blood running down Danny's face from the wound on his temple, which was ragged and deep. Danny was clearly unconscious, his arms thrown out to the side. Chinough knew that head wounds bled easily, but there was a scary amount of blood. He watched anxiously as Steve checked his detective over and found a bleeding score along Danny's side. Unbelievably, Collins' wild shot while running had found its mark. The wound was not deep, but it, too, was bleeding persistently.

"Boss?" It was Kono, pushing his way to Steve's side. "Auwe! Danny!"

"He's alive," Steve reported tersely. "Thanks to Chinough here." He touched the other man's arm in gratitude. "Good shooting," he added. "Mahalo."

Embarrassed, Chinough shook his head. He had no idea what to say. "Is Danny going to be all right?" he asked, trying to deflect the attention away from himself.

"I hope so," Steve replied. He looked back at Danny in time to see his youngest detective move his head slightly and groan. "Danno? Can you hear me?"

Danny's eyelids fluttered and then opened briefly. Danny groaned again and one hand wavered towards his head. Steve caught it easily. "Don't touch, Danno," he warned gently. "Just stay still. The ambulance is on the way."

"Ugh," Danny grunted and subsided. He didn't try to take his hand from Steve's grip.

"Ambulance is on the way, boss," offered Chin Ho Kelly, who had just appeared.

"What's happening up there?" Steve asked, gesturing with his chin towards Judith and Leadbetter. Chin had headed over there as Steve had started running after Danny and Collins.

"Leadbetter is badly hurt, boss," Chin reported soberly. "Ambulance already got to him. There's another one coming for Danny. The lady is unhurt."

By now, they could hear the sirens as the ambulance drew nearer. Danny was still, but the pain etched on his face told his colleagues that he was still conscious. Steve leaned over him and murmured something that Chinough took to be reassuring. He had never seen this side of the head of Five-O before. It was something of a revelation. He remained by Danny's side while Kono took charge of the crime scene, ordering the lab boys to come and someone from the coroner's office.

The medics in the ambulance applied dressings to Danny's injuries and gently lifted him onto the stretcher. Steve touched Chinough's arm. "Come down to the hospital," he ordered. "I'll take your statement there and you'll be on hand to see how Danno is doing."

"Yes, sir," Chinough replied.

"It's Steve," Steve smiled. "I owe you a huge debt of gratitude, Chinough Olena." He climbed into the ambulance and left Chinough feeling stunned.


	14. Chapter 14

Dr Bergman was waiting for the ambulance to arrive and Steve felt marginally better handing his friend over to the coroner than to just any other ER doctor, although he was sure they were all competent. He stood outside the small examination room and watched anxiously through the window. Danny had drifted off into unconsciousness again in the ambulance and Steve's heart was in his throat. That Danny had revived as the stretcher had been unloaded from the vehicle was of some small comfort, but until Steve knew the full extent of his friend's injuries, he would not be more than a few feet away.

Further down the corridor, a uniformed officer stood guard outside another examination room. Steve knew that this was where Leadbetter had to be and after a last glance at Danny, he went down. The officer straightened at his arrival. "How's Leadbetter?" Steve asked.

"I believe they are going to take him to surgery, sir," the officer replied. "Mrs Leadbetter is in the waiting room there. She might know more."

"Thank you," Steve replied. "You be sure that you go to the OR with Mr Leadbetter and stay with him in the recovery room." Steve had no idea if there was anyone else after Leadbetter, but it was far better to be safe than sorry.

He crossed the few steps to the waiting room and found Judith sitting alone in a corner. "Mrs Leadbetter?"

At once, Judith jumped up and looked at Steve anxiously. "Yes?"

"I'm Steve McGarrett," Steve offered, realising that he hadn't actually met Judith before, although he had met Leadbetter socially a couple of times. "Are you all right?"

Sitting down again, Judith sighed and nodded. "I suppose I am really," she replied. "It was … rather a shock seeing Richard and Brian – Neil – together for the first time. And Richard… Is what he said true?"

"I don't know," Steve replied. "I don't know what he said."

"When he … appeared … he said he was a … a government sanctioned assassin." Judith looked up at Steve. "Is it true? Could there be such a thing?"

"I don't know," Steve repeated, but his mind went inexorably to the men in dark suits who had arrested Danny and he thought there very well could be. The things that agency could do and get away with was frightening. "Have you heard how … your husband is?"

"Is Neil my husband?" Judith asked rhetorically. "Maybe he is; I don't know. Nobody has come to tell me anything." Her lower lip trembled and she wiped away tears. "Seeing him shot down like that! I've never seen anything like it." She regained her control and looked at Steve again. "Where's Danny? Is he all right?"

"He's been hurt," Steve replied. "The doctors are with him right now."

"Oh no!" Judith shook her head and wiped her face again. "And… Richard?"

"I'm sorry," Steve replied. "He's dead." He braced himself for more tears, but to his surprise, they didn't come. Judith sighed heavily.

"All these years with Neil, I've wondered about Richard. Where he was, what he was doing, whether he'd got married or not. Now I find that I never knew him at all and he never loved me. I was such an idiot. I did love him so, Mr McGarrett. I always dreamed that one day I would be able to go back to him and he would welcome me with open arms. We would be married…" She straightened up. "How did he die? Did Danny kill him?"

"No." Steve briefly sketched in what had happened and Judith listened, her mouth hanging open.

"Will Danny be all right?" she asked. "Or will Richard have another death on his hands?"

"I think Danno will be fine," Steve replied. "If you will excuse me, I have to go back." He rose, but as he did so, the door opened and the doctor that had been treating Leadbetter came in.

"Mrs Leadbetter? I'm Doctor Johnston. I've been treating your husband."

"How is he?" Judith asked.

"We're sending him up to surgery to get the bullet removed," Johnson replied. "His condition is stable, but from the tests we've run so far, I'm afraid that it looks as though he had been paralysed from the waist down. I'm very sorry."

"Poor Neil," Judith murmured softly. She had lived as this man's wife for more than a decade and although they were not in love, she felt bonds of affection for him. "Does he know?"

"Yes, ma'am," the doctor replied. "Would you like to see him before he goes to surgery?"

"Yes, please," Judith answered. She smiled at Steve. "Give Danny my best."

"I will," Steve agreed. "Mrs Leadbetter, I'll send someone to stay with you." He didn't add that it was for her own protection. This case was far from over. They knew who was after Leadbetter, but they didn't know why and Steve was taking no chances. Both Judith and Leadbetter would have guards until they got to the bottom of this whole thing. He followed her into the corridor and watched as she entered the examination room. He beckoned to the guard. "Keep an eye on Mrs Leadbetter as well. I'll send someone else to be with her."

"Yes, sir," the guard replied.

Satisfied that he had done what he could there for the moment, Steve returned to Danny's examination room. The portable x-ray machine was in there and Steve looked to Doc to find out what was going on. "How's he doing, Doc?"

"He's in and out," Doc replied, sounding worried. "I'm doing a full skull series to rule out a fractured skull. That blow to his head was serious, Steve. He's got a serious concussion and he's lost a fair amount of blood. I'll be keeping him here for a couple of days at least. Then he'll need another couple of weeks off before we start easing him back to work."

"What about his side?" Steve asked.

"Superficial," Doc replied. "It'll need a couple of stitches, but he was very lucky there. Again, it bled a lot but I suspect that was because of the exertion of the fight. He's got a couple of defensive wounds from the knife on his hands and I suspect he's going to be badly bruised from rolling about on the rubble during the fight, but I expect him to make a full recovery. He'll just need time to rest from the concussion."

The x-ray machine exited the room and Doc beckoned to Steve to come in. Danny's eyes were closed and he was ashy-pale, his face still bearing some blood stains. The white bandage that covered the wound on his temple had a red dot in the middle of it and strips of gauze were wrapped around his bare torso, covering the wound there. As Doc and Steve came in, his eyes opened a fraction and he glanced at them, grimacing. "Steve," he whispered in greeting.

"Howzit, aikane?" Steve asked, standing close beside him and putting a hand on Danny's arm. Now that Doc had mentioned it, he could see the superficial cuts on Danny's hands. His friend was slightly cold to the touch.

"Killer … headache," Danny whispered.

"I'll give you something for that as soon as I can," Doc promised. "I need to see the pictures of your hard head first."

"What happened?" Danny asked. He squinted against the light for a moment before giving up and closing his eyes again. His sight was slightly blurry and the light really hurt his eyes. "Collins?"

"What do you remember?" Steve asked.

"I chased… Collins," Danny murmured. "We fought." He forced his eyes open for a moment to look at Steve, but he couldn't really make out the expression on his boss's face. "Then… did he hit me?"

"Indeed he did," Steve agreed. He had been racing towards the scene when Collins brained his youngest detective and he had thought his heart would stop. He was too far away to secure a good shot and much too far away to throw his body in between Danny and Collins. He had honestly thought his detective was going to die. "He knocked you out with a chunk of concrete and was going to stab you." Danny flinched at the words. "But Chinough Olena was there and he shot Collins. He saved your life."

"Chinough," Danny sighed. "He's a good man. I… owe him my life." He pushed his eyes to open again. "Is he… here?" he asked.

"Outside," Steve replied.

"I'd like to see him," Danny requested.

"Only for a minute," Doc cautioned. "You need to rest, Danny."

Patting his friend's arm, Steve stepped outside the room to summon Olena from where he was waiting a few feet down the corridor. His normally jovial face was drawn and sober and Steve knew that he would be playing the scene from earlier over and over in his mind. IA would probably be catching up with him very soon, but that was procedure. There was no question that Olena had acted appropriately. "Chinough!" he called.

Coming to attention, Chinough shook off his grim thoughts. Killing anyone was never easy, no matter how justified. He had not aimed to kill, but Collins had been moving and the shot had been more devastating than Chinough had intended. He hurried over to Steve, a new anxiety now eating at his gut. "Danny?" he asked. "He's…?"

"Asking for you," Steve smiled. "Doc says you can go in for a minute."

"Thanks," Chinough grinned. He hurried inside the small room and leaned over the exam bed. "Danny?"

"Hey," Danny replied. He squinted at Chinough for a moment. "I owe you… my life," he said. "Somehow thanks… doesn't seem enough." He forced his eyes open again. "Mahalo, bruddah," he murmured.

"Oh, don't mention it." Chinough shrugged off the praise. "You still owe me a steak dinner from the last time I beat you at bowling, remember?" It was the standing bet between the two men. Neither one had ever paid up, but they persisted in the fantasy that one day, this steak dinner would happen.

"I owe you … two steak dinners," Danny joked weakly.

"You bet you do," Chinough replied. "You get better, bruddah. I'll see you soon."

Danny somehow forced his eyes open again and snagged Chinough's gaze. "Seriously," he breathed. "Mahalo for saving my life today."

Blinking back tears, Chinough smiled, his brown eyes warm. "Seriously," he replied, "you're welcome."


	15. Chapter 15

There was an anxious wait while the x-rays were developed. Danny dozed restlessly and Steve remained by his side. There was a lot to do, but he couldn't leave before knowing exactly how bad Danny's injuries were. Doc, his face a calm mask, numbed Danny's side and cleaned and stitched the bullet wound there. Finally, the x-rays returned and Doc pored over them for far longer than Steve was comfortable with. "Well?" he demanded.

""There's no fracture," Doc replied. "As I said, he has a serious concussion. I'm going to keep him here for a few days so we can keep an eye on him. Then he has to rest before he returns to work! At least a week off; maybe more if he needs it." He fixed Steve with a stern eye.

"He can have all the time he needs," Steve assured the physician. He glanced down at his sleeping officer. For the moment, Danny appeared to be resting comfortably. Steve hoped that this state would last for a while, but he knew that patients with a concussion would be woken regularly to ensure they had not slipped into a coma and to check their neural responses.

"We're going to move him up to a room now," Doc went on. "You're welcome to stay until he's settled, but then you need to let him rest."

"I have some things I have to do," Steve agreed. "I'll come back later."

"That sounds like a plan," Doc agreed. "But he doesn't need you staying all night." He fixed Steve without another of his stern gazes. "He's going to be fine, Steve."

"Thanks, Doc," Steve agreed. He went back outside while Danny was transferred to a gurney and was grateful that he had moved as Danny threw up on the hapless orderly's shoes. Steve didn't really count himself as squeamish – you couldn't be a cop with a delicate stomach – but when someone else vomited, Steve often felt like emulating them. He shook off the feeling and accompanied his detective to a room. Danny was drowsy, his headache dulled for the moment by some pain medication. He still couldn't keep his eyes open and Steve did not linger. Danny needed his rest.

There were quite a few things Steve had to do. He checked once more on Leadbetter, but the man was still in surgery. The cop assigned to Leadbetter's protection was waiting outside the operating theatre. There was another officer with Judith, who was in a waiting room, and Steve was able to tell her that Danny would be fine. "I need to take a statement from you," he told her. "Could we do that now?" He really didn't want to wait; it was always better to take a statement when the memories were fresh.

"Of course," Judith replied. She explained about receiving the phone call from Brian/Neil asking her to meet him. She then went on to tell of the nerve-wracking journey into Honolulu and finding Leadbetter waiting for them on the street. "When Richard appeared, I was stunned," she went on. "I didn't know he was here."

"No, we didn't think we should tell you," Steve replied. "Danny met him and there was something that set off some alarm bells."

"How could I have been so misled by him?" she asked. "He wasn't like the Richard I knew at all. The Richard I knew was somewhat diffident. He spoke quietly and didn't draw attention to himself. He would walk away from a fight rather than get caught up in it. How could I not have seen that was a lie?"

"He was highly trained," Steve told her. "His life was at stake – it's amazing how that hones your acting skills."

"He pointed the gun at us and said something about a car and how he wouldn't miss this time. Then he shot Brian in the back!" Judith was shaking again as she remembered her fear.

"What happened then?" Steve asked, resisting the urge to tell Judith that Richard had tried to kill his twin the previous evening.

"Richard ran away," Judith replied. "Danny ran after him. I tried to help Brian, but there was so much blood! And a police officer arrived. It was Mr Kelly. He had called for an ambulance. He stayed with me for a minute until another police man arrived and then he hurried off. I came in the ambulance with Brian."

"Thank you." Steve rose. "I hope that you get good news about the surgery." He could see why Danny liked Judith. She was coping amazingly well with this unusual and stressful situation.

"Thank you." Judith smiled at him. "I think, when I know how Brian is, that I will go back home. I don't want to be Mrs Leadbetter anymore, if I ever really was that person. I don't want to be married." Tears welled up in her eyes. "I just want to start over again."

"If there is any way I can help you, please just let me know," Steve told her warmly.

"You're very kind," Judith replied. "Thank you."

As he left, Steve glanced back into the waiting room. Judith was looking at the wedding bands she wore. After a moment, she pulled them both off and shoved them into a pocket. Steve knew he was looking at the start of a new part of her life and saluted her bravery.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What've we got?" Steve asked, sweeping into the office. Chin and Kono were standing with Jenny, who looked anxious. Steve quickly added, "Danno's going to be fine," to the petite redhead. He reached out and squeezed her hand reassuringly. Jenny found a smile.

"Da body's in da morgue," Kono informed his boss. "Doc says he'll get the autopsy done wikiwiki."

"We finger printed the dead man," Chin reported. "His prints are different from Brian Leadbetter's. We sent them off for confirmation." He glanced at his watch. "Ohio said they would put a rush on them. We should hear back pretty soon."

"Good." Steve led the way into his office. "What else?"

"He was carrying an arsenal," Chin replied, disgust evident in his tone. He gestured to the large bag lying on Steve's desk. "In addition to the knife he used against Danny, he had a Bowie knife, a couple of scalpels and a flick knife."

Distaste flickered across Steve's face as he poked the items through the plastic of the bag. He didn't want to handle them. "Have the lab seen these?" he asked.

"Yes," Kono confirmed. "They all have his prints on dem." He frowned. "Sorta careless of him," he added. "If he was an assassin."

"Yes, careless indeed," Steve agreed, frowning. "There must have been a reason for that."

"Maybe he wanted to frame his brother?" Chin suggested dubiously. "But Leadbetter's prints wouldn't have matched up with Collins'."

"We don't know what he had in mind for his brother, apart from murder," Steve agreed. "I know he shot at him last night, but perhaps that was just to stop him telling Danno who was after him. Maybe he had other plans before killing his brother."

"Maybe he gonna drop Leadbetter's body in acid," Kono suggested, seeing that dumb suggestions were being accepted.

"Maybe," Steve mused slowly. His gaze suddenly sharpened on the big Hawaiian. "Maybe. Maybe he was planning on becoming Leadbetter; taking over his life." Steve nodded after a moment's thought. "It's plausible. He kills his twin and steps into his shoes, allowing the Feds to take him away to another safe place. He would be gone, and so would his brother and his days as an assassin would be over."

"Or maybe not," Chin interjected. "Maybe this was his way of starting over and still remaining an assassin. Richard Collins would be gone, but he would have a new identity to use as cover."

"But how do we prove it?" Kono asked.

Deflating, if only for the moment, Steve shook his head. "We can't," he agreed. "But that doesn't mean that we stop working on trying to prove it."

The intercom buzzed. "Steve, Che would like you to go down to the lab if you could," Jenny requested.

"I'll be right there," Steve responded. "Let's go, gentlemen."


	16. Chapter 16

The diminutive Che Fong was the only resident of the lab. Steve glanced at the clock, surprised to find that it was after 6pm. The afternoon had vanished in a haze of activity and worry. "What do you have, Che?" he asked.

"I've been examining Richard Collins' personal effects," Che replied. He gestured to the various bagged items on the table. "He travelled lightly," he commented. "There were very few clothes, even assuming he only meant to stay a few days."

"How few?" Steve asked.

Pointing to one bag, Che made a face. "He had one change of clothes and I would say he had already worn these." He pointed to another bag. "He was also carrying seven passports."

"Seven?" Steve's gaze sharpened on Che. The scientist was used to that, but it never failed to surprise him.

"Yes, seven. They are all American, but each one has a different name. I dusted them for prints, and all the prints match the ones Chin took off the body. He also had a plastic handgun in his suitcase. It wouldn't have been picked up by the scanners at the airports." Che showed them the small weapon. "He also had several knives in his luggage, all with retractable blades. And look what I found in his boots." Che picked up an ordinary looking cowboy-style boot and from the top edge of the leg, withdrew a long, slender stiletto. The blade glinted in the light. Steve took it and touched the tip carefully. A tiny drop of red blood appeared on the pad of his finger.

"Sharp," Steve commented, not surprised.

"It would go through skin like a hot knife through butter," Che commented. "If you pardon the pun."

"Wouldn't that have set off a metal detector at the airport?" Chin asked.

"Probably," Che agreed, "but a search wouldn't have found anything. It was a fluke that I found it."

"Skill, you mean," Steve corrected the smaller man. Che half smiled. The phone rang and he excused himself to answer it. Steve and the others looked at the collection of weapons and passports, chilled to the bone.

"Steve, that was the hospital," Che reported. "They want you there at once. It's urgent."

"Danno?" Steve asked, his heart rising into his throat.

"I don't know; they didn't say. They just asked that you go to the hospital quickly."

"Thanks." Throwing a look at the other two detectives, Steve all but ran from the room. Had Danno taken a turn for the worse? He threw himself into the car and slapped on the siren.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There seemed to be a disturbing lack of urgency as Steve enquired at the desk why he'd been summoned. Didn't they know how important Danno was to him? He forced himself not to get angry with the nurse on the desk who was phoning to find out where to send him. It wasn't her fault.

"Third floor, Mr McGarrett," she told him, hanging up the phone. "Someone will be waiting for you." She was relieved as the tall man tore off towards the stairwell at high speed. Honestly! Had no one taught him manners? So impatient. She couldn't know everything that was happening in the hospital.

Steve took the stairs two at a time and burst onto the third floor to find Doc Bergman waiting for him with another doctor that he recognised after a moment had been treating Brian Leadbetter. What was his name? Oh yes; Johnston. "Doc?" he gasped, suddenly realising that this was not the floor Danno had been on. This was the floor for intensive care.

At once, Bergman realised what Steve had feared. "Danny's fine," he hastily assured the head of Five-O.

"Then what…?" Steve began, relief flooding his veins.

"Leadbetter," Doc replied. He gestured to his colleague.

"I'm afraid that Brian Leadbetter died on the operating table," Johnston reported. "We did everything we could, but the injury was just too serious."

"I see." Steve was sorry that Leadbetter had died. He had some unanswered questions that would now remain unanswered. He supposed that this would offer Judith a chance to start her life over again, although at a cost she would never have dreamed of or wished for.

"Steve, my colleagues who operated on Leadbetter removed the bullet," Bergman said, recapturing Steve's attention. He produced the piece of metal from his pocket and Steve took it, subliminally noting that it was warm, as though Bergman had been holding onto it.

It was unlike any bullet that Steve had ever seen before. He looked at it, uncomprehending. Bergman nodded. "It took us a while to figure it out, too, and I guess until Che has seen it, we might be wrong, but this bullet seems to have behaved like an ordinary bullet right up until it punched through Leadbetter's spinal cord. Then, the tip seems to have exploded as it continued into his body. It might have gone right through had it not bounced into the sternum. I haven't had the chance to do the autopsy yet, of course, but from what the others could see while operating, the sternum shattered. I'm going to get started on the autopsy right away, but I thought you would want to know and to pass this onto Che."

"Yes, indeed I do," Steve agreed, pocketing the little piece of metal. "Mahalo, Doc. How is Danno?"

"Sleeping the last I saw him," Bergman reported. "And that's how I'd like him to stay," he added pointedly.

"I won't wake him," Steve promised. He wasn't going to leave the building without at least looking in on his second in command.

"Be sure that you don't," Bergman smiled. "I'll get onto the autopsy right away, Steve."


	17. Chapter 17

The lab was empty when Steve returned and he didn't have the heart to ask Che Fong to come back and study the bullet that night. It could wait until the morning. They had the gun to compare the ballistics, although there was no doubt that the gun had been the one that killed Leadbetter. Weary, Steve thought about visiting Judith and offering his condolences, but he was too tired. Now that he knew Danny would be all right, the adrenalin had left his body, leaving him worn. He was hungry and decided to head for home. Kono and Chin, after being assured of Danny's continued well-being and informed of Leadbetter's death, had gone home some time before.

He couldn't quite shake off thoughts of the case, even as he drove home and cooked himself something quick to eat. It seemed obvious that the person Leadbetter had witnessed committing a crime had been his twin. He had to have seen something pretty momentous for the decision to have been made to spirit Leadbetter into hiding. Collins must have assassinated someone – but whom? He couldn't bring any notable murders from Chicago to mind, and resolved to put the matter out of his mind until he could do some more research tomorrow.

Despite his best efforts, he couldn't leave the matter alone and woke a couple of times during the night, still thinking about the case. At 6am, he gave up trying to sleep and rose for a solitary jog along the beach. After a shower and breakfast, he stopped at the hospital on the way to the Palace to see how Danny was doing and was pleased to find his friend looking slightly better than he had the previous day. The light was still bothering Danny a bit, and so the window of his hospital room was shaded against the bright morning sun. He was still hooked up to a drip, but the breakfast tray showed that he had eaten at least a small amount of food.

"When can I go home?" Danny asked. The gash on his head bore a bandage that hid the stitches there and a hospital gown covered the bandage on his side.

"When Doc says you can," Steve replied. "I'm not going to fight him on this, Danno. You've got a serious concussion and I don't want you to do anything that might make it worse." He glanced at the blinds obscuring the sun. "You're clearly still light sensitive."

Sighing heavily, Danny sank back against his pillows. "Yeah," he admitted reluctantly.

"And you've got a headache," Steve reminded him.

"Like I could forget," Danny grumbled. "And I'm still hooked up to this thing." He lifted his arm and squinted disdainfully at the IV. "I wanted the nurse to pull it earlier, but she wouldn't. Says Doc has to see me first."

Amused at his friend's grumbling, Steve resisted assuring him that he would get home later that day. Bergman had been adamant that Danny should stay a couple of days at the least and given how fragile Danny still appeared that morning, Steve was in full sympathy with the coroner's feelings. "Then we'll see what he says when he comes in," Steve agreed. "He might be a bit late – he was performing an autopsy last night."

"Oh? Who was it?" Danny looked more interested and sat up a bit further, wincing at the movement.

Belatedly, Steve remembered that Danny had been asleep when he had looked in the previous evening, and so didn't know about this new development. "I'm afraid it's Brian Leadbetter," Steve replied. "He died during surgery."

"Oh," Danny sighed, clearly at a loss for words. He had not really known Leadbetter, but any man's death diminished him. "I'm sorry. How has Judith taken the news?"

"I don't know," Steve admitted. "She had left last night before I learned of his death and I wasn't going to call on her this morning at this hour." He wanted to promise that he would get in touch with her, but he knew his day was likely to be very busy. If he could find a moment, he would call, but if he couldn't, he wouldn't beat himself up. To get things done, he had to prioritise and comforting the grieving – or otherwise – widow was not high on his agenda. Danny was the one who had made a real connection with her. He knew Danny would understand.

His young second did. He nodded before he thought better of it and fought to keep the discomfort that caused off his face. He failed. Steve frowned with concern. He hated to see Danny hurting. "I'll phone her later," Danny murmured.

"See how you feel later," Steve advised. "Don't push; rest. Take things easy."

"I'm all right," Danny lied. Steve smiled.

"You're so pale I can see through you," Steve told him. "It's all right not to be all right." He laughed at the confused expression on Danny's face as the injured man tried to puzzle through that one. "Danno, don't worry. You rest and get better. Judith can wait."

"I guess," Danny agreed.

"I need to go," Steve said, glancing at his watch. "I'll see you later." He sketched a farewell as he headed for the door and Danny found a passable smile for him. Steve didn't doubt that the moment he was gone, Danny would be lying back on the bed with his eyes closed. That, he decided, was exactly what his friend needed; rest!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I've never seen a bullet like it, Steve," Che reported later that morning. "The casing is very thin and it appears that it was designed to explode once it had made contact."

"Like a hollow point bullet?" Steve asked.

"Not exactly," Che replied. He frowned. "It appears that on contact, the bullet was designed to explode like a bomb. The tip appears to have been packed with a small amount of high explosive. This one did not work properly; that is why Leadbetter managed to survive the bullet. If it had worked properly, all his internal organs would have been severely damaged, if not obliterated, on impact. I don't know why it didn't work properly, but it seems to me a risky thing to do." He pointed to the microscope and Steve obediently peered down the lens, seeing the plasticine-like substance lining the bullet tip. "As I said," Che went on, "I haven't seen anything like this before. I thought I would send off an enquiry…"

"Don't!" Steve ordered urgently. Thoughts of Danny's abduction were suddenly flooding his mind. "Don't, please. I can't tell you much, but I can say that there is a government agency involved in this and we don't want to tread on anyone's toes. I would love to know where this came from, but I think I had better be the one doing the asking."

"Yes, of course," Che agreed, somewhat taken aback by Steve's obvious disquiet. He swallowed to allow both Steve and himself a moment to regain their composure. "The bullet casing had Collins' prints all over it."

"Thank you, Che," Steve replied. "If you can bag the bullet, I'll take it with me." He didn't want someone bursting into the lab and doing harm, intentional or otherwise, to his colleague.

With a lot more on his mind, Steve headed back to his office. He had some phone calls to make.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N The bullet is completely a figment of my overactive imagination. I have no idea if such a thing exists and no desire to know. I created it solely for the purpose of this story.


	18. Chapter 18

While Steve spent time on the phones, trying to track down someone who would talk to him about the bullet, Collins and Leadbetter, Danny spent the day mostly asleep. His persistent headache still dominated his life and he was grateful for the pain medications that took the edge off it. His side, by comparison, barely hurt at all. Several times he thought of his intention to call Judith, but he realised that he did not have her phone number with him and asking the nurses to find it for him, or calling Steve to ask for it was far too much effort. He wanted to speak to Judith, but he was simply too worn out.

When Steve came in to visit that evening, Danny made an effort to keep awake. He thought it was ridiculous that he was still exhausted after sleeping for most of the day, but he was. Still, he was keen to learn what Steve had been up to all day and was disappointed that Steve had mostly run into a series of brick walls.

"I called everyone I know," Steve growled. "Nobody is speaking and Jonathan Kaye is not in his office and nobody seems to know when he'll return."

"You think the bullet is tied in to the Feds, somehow?" Danny asked.

Reluctantly, Steve nodded. "I believe it might be. I need to talk to them, but I don't relish going to their building. Besides, I might need to speak to someone higher up in the organisation than the local men. I simply don't know." Steve was pacing and Danny wished he would sit down. The movement was making him slightly nauseous. "I don't want to become more involved with those people than I already am, but I have to be sure that I am protecting everyone involved with this case; you, Che and Doc first and foremost. This may be a matter of national security and if so, I cannot have it all over the newspapers." He stopped and looked at Danny, seeing the tinge of green in his friend's face. "Are you all right, Danno?"

"I'm fine," Danny replied, relieved that Steve had stopped moving. "Steve, I can look after myself."

"Not at the moment," Steve contradicted. He gestured to the bed and the recently removed IV. "You still have the needle in your arm in case you need it."

"I hardly think they're going to come and take me from my hospital bed," Danny objected.

"We just don't know," Steve replied darkly. "We don't know what they might do." He made a visible effort to shrug off his worries. "Probably nothing, but it's better to be safe than sorry." He sat down, although Danny could see that his boss's nervous energy had not abated. "What is Doc saying?"

"About me?" Danny smiled briefly, letting Steve know that he wanted to hear about the autopsy. "I can get up in the morning and if I'm still okay, he's going to spring me tomorrow afternoon."

"I'm glad to hear it," Steve replied, smiling as well. "I suppose you want to know about the autopsy now."

"Yeah," Danny agreed. He had tried to prise the information out of Doc, but the crusty coroner was tired and feeling overworked and refused to divulge anything on the grounds that his patient was signed off work sick.

"The bullet, as you know, entered Leadbetter's back. It severed his spinal cord on the way through and then, once inside, it was supposed to explode," Steve explained, just in case Danny had forgotten those details. Danny nodded gingerly. "The bullet didn't go off properly for whatever reason, but there was enough of an explosion to drive it into his sternum, his breast bone, and break it into a very large number of pieces." Danny let out a low whistle. He knew how hard a sternum was and how difficult to break. "The explosive inside damaged all of Leadbetter's organs. Individually, each injury had the potential to be repaired in surgery, but added all together and with the trauma of the surgery, Leadbetter went into huge organ failure and there was nothing the surgical team could do to save him. Doc says there were bleeding tears in his liver, lungs, heart and spleen. The bowel had ruptured, too."

Danny looked sick and Steve glanced around for an emesis basin in case it was needed. He hadn't stopped to think his friend might still be suffering from nausea; he hadn't meant to be so graphic in his description. "I didn't know such a bullet existed," Danny muttered after a moment.

"Neither did I," Steve replied. "I wish I still didn't know." The seamier side of mankind was always a surprise to him, even after all his years in Naval Intelligence and with Five-O.

"Me, too," Danny agreed. He looked tired.

"Enough shop talk," Steve decided. "You're still on the sick list, Danno."

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Danny pledged. "And I'll be much better when I get out of here."

Smiling, Steve agreed, although he knew from past personal experience that although the thought was cheering Danny, once he was outside the hospital, he would get a rude reminder of how weak he still was. There was no point in saying that, though. Danny would find out soon enough.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Indeed he did, the following afternoon. Danny edged his way carefully into his apartment, not willing to admit to how much his head was pounding after the journey home. He sat down with care on the couch and hoped that Kono, his nominated driver for the afternoon, would not want something to eat or drink. He was sure his friend could find something in the house, but whether it was still edible was another matter. Danny couldn't for the life of him remember if he had grocery shopped recently or not, and thinking about it too hard just made his headache worse.

"Da boss say he bring food later," Kono offered. "It mo bettah that way."

"Yeah, sure is," Danny agreed in a heartfelt manner that left Kono, not in the know about Danny's worries about being a good host, rather surprised.

"Da boss – he been worried about you," Kono declared.

"Just the boss, huh?" Danny teased tiredly.

"Chin and me, we know you got a hard head," Kono teased right back. "Ain't nuthin' can crack that head." He made as though to knock on Danny's skull, but the haole detective was not going to let that happen. He put his hand out to stay the action. Kono took the hint and shoved the offending hand into his pocket. He didn't like it when something happened to Danny. "You gonna be all right, bruddah?" he asked, reluctantly to leave Danny alone, but knowing he had to get back to the Palace and whatever non-action was happening there.

"I'll be fine," Danny assured the big man with a smile and waved his friend out of the apartment. With Kono gone, Danny locked the door and slowly made his way to the bedroom. He stripped off the bandages on his wounds, went into the bathroom and showered off the hospital smell. Totally exhausted after drying himself, he slid into a pair of sweatpants and lay down on the bed for a few moments.

Predictably, he fell sound asleep at once.


	19. Chapter 19

Thanks to Steve's 'interfering', Danny's neighbour, Sally, popped in a couple of times to make sure that he wasn't alone for too long. Danny was exasperated at Steve's meddling, but he did appreciate the sentiment. Sally was a few years older than Danny, divorced, but not on the hunt for a new man, and they had become friends. Steve had met her a couple of times. Danny enjoyed her company and she never out-stayed her welcome. He was pretty sure that after each time she popped round, she then phoned Steve to let him know that Danny was fine. By the time Steve did arrive, bearing some groceries with him, Danny was feeling tired but better than he had been when he first came home.

"What have you found out?" Danny asked after they had finished eating and had cleaned up. "Has Jonathan Kaye got back to you yet?"

"No," Steve replied, scowling darkly. "I'm getting absolutely nowhere. I've tried all my contacts in Washington and I'm getting a dead end from each and every one of them." He sighed. "I think word has gone around and I am finding that a lot of people are 'out of the office' when I call." He visibly made the effort to clear his irritation. "I may, however, have discovered what Leadbetter witnessed."

"Oh?" Danny leaned forward, eager to hear all about it.

"I've been doing a little digging in old newspaper files," Steve explained. "I couldn't remember hearing about any assassination attempt in Chicago around about the time we are looking at, so I came at it from a different direction. I looked for sudden deaths and I hit pay dirt, I think."

"Who was it?" Danny asked.

"An up-and-coming young politician," Steve replied. "His name was James Hunt. He started off life on the city council and by the time he was 30, he was deputy leader and reportedly in the running to become the leader at the next election. He was very good at his job, representing his local area, getting things done, putting new jobs into place, starting to sort out housing and crime. There was talk that he would be running for Congress or the Senate and big things were expected of him."

"What happened?" Danny asked.

"He stood on some toes," Steve replied. "He called out the sitting Senator about some promises he had made about funding for new roads and jobs that had never come to fruition. He was quite vocal in the media and newspapers and was causing quite a stir. The Senator was visibly shaken by the challenge. Then, one night, Hunt was at a fund-raising banquet. He had been particularly vocal that week in condemning the Senator, and was calling for a public enquiry and threatening to go all the way to the top with it – right to the President himself if need be." Steve took a sip of his coffee. "During the night following the banquet, Hunt had not felt well. He was rushed to hospital with suspected food poisoning, and died shortly after he got there. Food poisoning was ruled out at the autopsy, especially since nobody else at the banquet became ill. His death was put down to a possible allergy and that was the end of it."

"You think this was what Leadbetter witnessed?" Danny asked, perplexed. "How do you witness something like that without everyone seeing it?"

"I don't entirely know the answer to that," Steve replied, "and we probably never will, but Leadbetter had reported that he had seen a waiter tampering with Hunt's plate immediately before he was served."

"And he recognised the waiter as his twin?" Danny guessed.

"I would think so," Steve agreed. "I requested the banquet guest list and Neil Collins' name was on it. He was attending as a representative of the firm he was working for. The coroner's inquest was decidedly sketchy on details and the police report simply states that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. The autopsy report has been sealed and all the information I got about it was from the inquest records and newspaper archives."

"This stinks of a big hush-up," Danny declared. "The police must have followed up on Leadbetter's report, surely?"

"I expect they did, and that was when the Feds spirited him away and made all the evidence disappear." Steve made a face. "The Senator served another two terms with no particular distinction and then retired quietly. From what I can learn from the Chicago police, he was deeply involved with the Mafia. His wife was a well-known Mafia daughter and there is no doubt that the Mafia have had fingers in high places. The Senator conveniently died in a car accident a year after his retirement."

"This gets murkier and murkier," Danny murmured.

"Indeed it does," Steve sighed. "I'm not entirely sure it all makes sense, either, but this is all I could come up with. I suppose, with both of them dead, it doesn't matter anymore. Nothing can be proven. Now, if I could just get some answers about this bullet, we could tie all this up and put it behind us. No more messing with the Feds."

"Until next time," Danny commented wryly.

Laughing, Steve agreed. "Until next time."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A good night's sleep in his own bed did Danny a world of good. He felt much better the next morning and decided that he would make the effort and go out to visit Judith. The fresh air would do him good and his conscience would be appeased at not having spoken to the woman in the preceding days. It was incredibly tempting to take his car, but driving with a concussion was sheer madness, and Danny knew that. He opted to call for a cab.

It was a beautiful day in paradise. Danny was glad of his shades, because the light did still bother him a bit. He waited for the cab in the shade, not in direct sunlight and sighed at the thought of being so mature and responsible. When had that happened? He laughed quietly to himself at the realisation that he was a grown up and had been for some years and was not Peter Pan.

The cab driver had initially tried to take Danny on the scenic route, assuming he was a tourist, but Danny quickly put a stop to that. Thereafter, the previously voluble cabby had spoken not a single word until it was time to ask for his fare. Danny didn't object to the quiet. He was glad to be able to admire the beauty of his island home as a passenger instead of the driver – or a passenger clinging on to the dashboard of Steve's car! He walked down the short drive to Judith's home and rang the bell.

It was only as he was waiting for an answer that Danny thought perhaps he should have called ahead. He didn't know if Judith was at home and he would have a bit of a walk back to the nearest pay phone if she was out. However, his fears were unfounded, as Judith opened the door a few moments later. "Danny!" she exclaimed in delight. "How are you? Come on in and sit down."

"I'm fine," Danny lied, because his headache was still there. He knew it would be several days before it loosened its hold on him. "How are you?" He was glad enough to sit down in the cool interior of the house.

"I'm all right," Judith replied. "I suppose I'm a bit numb, actually. I was quite shaken by Neil's death. He didn't deserve to go like that. I didn't love him, but we had lived together for years and I was used to him. Does that sound terribly cold?"

"No, it's sounds perfectly understandable," Danny assured her. "I'm sorry about his death. What are you going to do now?"

"I was planning to go home, but with Neil dying, I'm not really sure what to do about the house. I had assumed that Neil would be coming back here to live, at least for a while. But now… I don't know if the house belonged to him, or to the government. I don't know if anything I own is really mine." She sighed heavily. "I guess I'll have to hire a lawyer to sort it all out."

"It sounds like it," Danny commiserated. He didn't fancy being in the middle of such a mess. "Do you have a lawyer?"

"No," Judith admitted. "I expect Neil did, but I don't know who. I suppose I'll just have to find one for myself."

"I could probably give you a couple of names," Danny offered. "If you would like me to."

"Oh, that would be so kind!" Judith cried. She blinked back tears and then wiped away one that escaped down her cheek. "Oh dear," she sighed. "I wish I could stop crying."

"Grief is natural," Danny reminded her. "What you're going through is normal." He reached for a piece of paper on the table and scribbled the names of a couple of lawyers for her to try. Judith put the paper into her purse.

They exchanged small talk for a few minutes, Judith offering coffee or a soft drink, Danny refusing. He knew he should head back home soon, because he was supposed to be resting and he was beginning to feel rather tired. He was about to ask her if he could use the phone to call a cab when they heard the sound of a car engine outside. For an irrational moment, Danny thought Steve had discovered that he had come here and was going to personally chew him out for leaving his apartment. It was an entirely possible scenario, but Steve would probably have called first to be sure that Danny was there and to warn his friend to stay put until such times as he arrived to take Danny home.

"I wonder who this can be," Judith said, as the doorbell rang. She headed towards the door and as her hand touched the handle, Danny had a sudden premonition.

"Judith…" he began, but it was too late. She opened the door wide and the room was suddenly full of dark-suited men.

Judith let out a startled scream. Danny instinctively reacted and moved over to place himself between the woman and the armed men. It was a futile gesture. There were too many men for Danny to even think of putting up some kind of resistance.

"Mrs Leadbetter, I do hope you weren't planning on leaving without speaking to us," declared one of the men. He was older, looking to be in his 50s, with greying dark hair.

"I have nothing to do with you now," Judith answered spiritedly. "Leave me alone!"

"I'm afraid that you do have quite a lot to do with us," the man replied. He nodded to the person next to him, who took Judith's arm in a firm grip. Judith pulled against him, but got nowhere.

"Let her go!" Danny ordered. He knew it was a futile gesture, but he couldn't stand by and watch them manhandle Judith.

"Williams, you are a pest," the man declared. "Just shut up!" He gestured to someone behind him. "We need to take Williams with us, too. Secure him."

"Wait a minute!" Danny objected, but everyone ignored him. From behind the leader stepped the sleek blond agent that Danny had met before. The other man gloated openly at Danny's surprise. Danny started to back away, but there were too many men there, and he was grabbed, spun around and his hands tightly manacled behind his back.

The spin had left him dangerously dizzy, but Danny was determined to keep his feet. He forced his head up and was finally able to focus on the agent standing in front of him. There was a gloating look on the blond agent's face. "I've looked forward to having you in my hands again, Williams," the agent hissed malevolently. "We're going to have fun, you and I."

"I wouldn't count on that," Danny retorted as he was hustled out of the house. Judith was already being pushed into one car and Danny was shoved roughly into the other. The blond agent climbed in behind him and slipped a blindfold over his eyes, grinning as Danny winced as the wound on his head was touched.

"Oh yes," the agent said, satisfaction colouring his tones. "Lots of fun."


	20. Chapter 20

The phone continued to ring out, unanswered, and Steve was getting angry. Where was Danno? Was he all right? Was he outside on the beach, watching the pretty wahines in their bikinis on the beach? He couldn't be sleeping – the ringing of the phone would have wakened him. Sally was at work that day, Steve knew, so wouldn't be able to go round and check on Danny.

Crashing the hapless receiver down, Steve immediately snatched it back up and dialled another number. It would be just like Danno to ignore the strictures to rest and strain his health by going to visit Judith Leadbetter! Why couldn't he content himself to call, just like anyone else who was on the sick list? He scowled angrily at the phone as the ringing at the other end continued, unanswered. Perhaps Judith had gone out and Danny had missed her? Perhaps he was currently returning to his apartment? He'd better not be driving himself, Steve thought as he replaced the receiver. If he had been, Steve was going to kill him. Danny should know better.

He paced, too anxious to try and do any work and then tried Danny's number again. It rang endlessly. Cutting off the call, Steve resumed pacing. His anger had gone and had been replaced by worry. Danny was a grown man and perfectly capable of making his own decisions and taking care of himself, but right now, Danny was on the sick list and there were still too many unanswered questions about this whole mess.

When his phone rang, Steve pounced on it, convinced it would be Danny on the other end, somehow suspecting that Steve had been checking in on him while he was out. "McGarrett."

It wasn't Danny. "Steve, its Jonathan Kaye," replied a familiar voice. "I believe you've been looking for me."

"Yes, I have," Steve replied. "I wanted…"

"Before you go any further, I have a few things to tell you. Listen carefully, because I won't be repeating anything. Got it?" Kaye's voice was brusque.

"Got it," Steve agreed. He desperately wanted to question the government man, but knew when Kaye spoke like this, he had no choice but to go along with what he wanted.

"Neil Collins did indeed witness his twin brother tampering with Hunt's plate at that banquet," Kaye began, leaving Steve wondering how on earth the other man knew about his thinking. "He was taken into protective custody, made to take on his brother's identity for the purposes of marrying Judith Mann and then spirited away. His talents as an accountant were utilised, as you are aware, for the benefit of the state of Hawaii. He was kept under close supervision the whole time. Richard Collins was too valuable an asset to lose. However, Richard had come across a photograph of his brother and Judith in an old newspaper article while doing some research for a job, and had tracked them down. He knew that his twin had seen him tampering with the plate of food. Although he had been assured by his masters that Neil would keep his mouth shut, Richard wanted to make sure of that. When Dan Williams blundered into the case, Richard had an opportunity to come to Hawaii under his own name. His intent was to kill Neil and Judith."

"All right," Steve replied when Kaye paused.

"Now, Judith has to be debriefed by the government agency involved in keeping the Leadbetters safe and she will be relocated somewhere safe."

"What if she doesn't want to be?" Steve interrupted. He hated the games the government played with people's lives.

"Don't interrupt!" Kaye snapped. "She has no choice, Steve! She will be taken to a place of safety and then spirited out of Hawaii. You don't need to worry about her. I believe that the plan is already underway."

A spasm of fear gripped Steve. "And if there was someone with her when they went for her?" he asked.

There was a pause. "Then you'd better say goodbye to Dan Williams," Kaye answered heavily. "Because you won't be seeing him ever again."

"What are you saying?" Steve demanded. "They wouldn't kill Danno!" It wasn't a question, but the fear was real.

"Probably not," Kaye agreed wearily. "But he would never be allowed to see daylight again. They'll have him locked up securely somewhere. I take it Williams is missing?"

"I'm not sure," Steve confessed. "I've been unable to reach either him or Judith."

"I'm sorry, Steve," Kaye replied. "Then it's too late, already." He hung up the phone without another word.

"It might be too late for you, Jonathan," Steve growled, "but I'll make sure it's not too late for Danno!" Gently, he replaced the receiver and reached for his jacket. "Jenny, I'm going out for a while," he announced as he strode through the office. "I hope I won't be too long."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

The downtown building where the agency had been located just a few short days before was deserted. The doors were not locked, and Steve, when he cautiously explored, found that crude 'renovations' had been done. The metal doors that had enclosed the cells were still there, but the bunks and commodes had gone. There was not even a speck of dust to tell Steve where they might have gone to.

Angry and frustrated, Steve returned to the office. He tried calling Danny's apartment again, but there was no answer. He hadn't expected one. He immediately summoned Kono and Chin. "Danno is missing," he announced baldly. "I think he and Judith Leadbetter have been taken by the feds again. They have moved premises. I want you to put a halt to all air traffic and shipping leaving the rock until every single inch of each vessel and vehicle has been searched. That includes private planes and boats. Have the Coastguard check out any vessels that have left port here in the last three hours. If Judith Leadbetter or Danno are found, bring them back here at once."

Startled, the two other men exchanged glances. "On it, boss," Chin agreed and he and Kono hurried out. From Steve's demeanour, they knew that time was of the essence.

Alone, Steve searched in his desk drawer for a phone number that he had been told to call only in the direst need. This, he thought, qualified as dire need. Taking a deep breath, he dialled the number and waited. The phone rang only once. A deep male voice identified himself and Steve reciprocated. Moments later, he was connected to another person and said, "I need your help."


	21. Chapter 21

The blindfold was uncomfortably tight on his wound, but Danny didn't protest. He thought it was ridiculous, too. He had already been in the feds' building and knew where it was; what did it matter if he saw where he was going? But as the journey went on, Danny realised that they must have moved and his heart sank. Steve would not know where to find him. He had no idea how long it would be before Steve discovered he was missing. Danny hadn't contacted his boss that day and told him of his plans.

What of Judith? Danny mused. What were they going to do to her? He was angry that he had been unable to protect her, but he had to admit that he was heavily outnumbered and still too shaky from the concussion to try anything. His headache increased as Danny strained to hear anything above the noise of the car engine and the even breathing of the agent sitting next to him.

He had no idea how long the journey went on for, but he was glad when it stopped. He had never been prone to motion sickness, but he discovered that travelling blindfolded in a car with a concussion was not a good thing. He was decidedly wobbly as he was pulled from the vehicle and leaned against the car for a few moments, not caring how it looked. He was ill and there was little point in pretending otherwise.

A hand gripped each arm at the bicep, and Danny was led, stumbling, inside a building. It was cool inside and smelt dusty. There was a vague echo to their footfalls which suggested to the captive that there was a larger space outside the area he was currently in. He stumbled once or twice, but was kept on his feet by the agents flanking him. After a few minutes, they stopped and the blindfold was ripped off.

Blinking against the harsh, bright light, Danny looked around. He was in an interrogation room, with the standard table and two hard chairs. The usual one-way mirror was on the wall and there was a camera nestled in a corner just beneath the ceiling.

"Sit down, Williams," the blond agent instructed.

For a moment, Danny was tempted to just sit down where he stood, the dusty, dirty state of the floor notwithstanding. However, he gathered himself together and stumbled the few steps to the chair. He despised himself for showing weakness, but he was feeling rotten – really ill – and knew that he had overdone things that day. Steve was going to kill him – if he survived this ordeal.

"Let's get on with it then," he said resignedly. "You ask stupid questions and I refuse to answer. Isn't that how this is going to work?"

"Probably," the agent replied. "I neglected to introduce myself when we last met. I am John Smith."

"Of course you are," Danny replied sarcastically. "And I'm Abraham Lincoln." He knew his comebacks lacked his usual wit, but thinking was hard work at the moment. "Just get on with it."

"You are in a hurry," Smith laughed. "You'll wish you weren't when you find out where you're going after this."

"I'm an officer in Hawaii Five-O," Danny reminded him. "Making me disappear isn't going to be easy. McGarrett will be looking for me."

"He can look all he wants," Smith sneered. "He won't find us here." He gestured around the room. "In case you're too stupid to guess, we've moved."

"That was obvious," Danny retorted. "But Steve won't give up."

"He can look from now until eternity," Smith snapped. "He won't find you."

"So you're going to kill me and bury the evidence," Danny concluded bitterly. "Why?"

His question seemed to push Smith into the anger that Danny had expected sooner. "You caused us to lose one of our most valuable assets," Smith hissed. "Thanks to your interfering, we lost both Leadbetter and Collins."

"You weren't exactly making a bang-up job of looking after Leadbetter, were you?" Danny snapped back. "He'd managed to elude you for long enough that his wife called the police to report him missing!" He drew a deep breath, trying to get past the pounding in his head. "She clearly didn't know to contact you here and he obviously didn't trust you as far as he could throw you!"

"You know nothing about it!" Smith snarled.

"No? Then why didn't Leadbetter come to you when he learned that his brother had tracked him down?"

Smith turned, his arm upraised and Danny braced himself for a blow that didn't fall. After a few moments, Smith slowly dropped his arm. He drew several breaths, his eyes firmly on Danny, and he didn't even try to hide his hate. "You are a pest, Williams," Smith said, finally. "You have interfered in something that had nothing to do with you. You're going to disappear and your precious McGarrett will never find you." A smile slid across Smith's face. "You're going to meet a doctor we know, and have a little bit of surgery." He reached out and patted Danny's face, a lot harder than was necessary. "Then, you're going to spend a lot of time in prison – the rest of your life, in fact. You will find that you are serving several life sentences for a lot of extremely unpleasant offences – the kind that makes you a target for the other inmates." His smile grew more feral. "You won't be able to defend yourself, I'm afraid, so it won't be a pleasant experience for you, but you never know; you might start to enjoy it."

"You're sick," Danny told him. He had no idea exactly what this surgery he was talking about involved, but he had to guess he would come out the other end unable to speak.

"Of course," Smith went on, seeing Danny paling, "we might choose a mental institution where they keep you doped out of your mind all day and anything you say wouldn't be believed because you have lost your mind. Wouldn't that be a shame?"

Danny had had enough of this interview. He rose to his feet and bit back the wince as the too-sudden movement jarred his throbbing head. "I don't need to listen to this," he declared. "You're pathetic, Smith, or whatever your name is." He glanced directly at the camera, then looked at the mirror. "I'm finished in here."

"You're finished full stop," Smith informed him malevolently. He latched on to Danny's upper arm again and dragged the detective out of the room. His grip was tight and Danny mused that he would probably have bruises there later. He was led through a maze of corridors and into an area that was clearly the holding area, although it was still under construction. One cell was completed and it was into this one that Danny was led.

A large man, possibly the same one who had been guarding the desk the first time Danny was taken by the feds, came into the cell. Danny was searched and his personal belongings removed. His hands were cuffed in front of him, which was a slight improvement, but he had hoped the cuffs would be removed entirely. Still…

There was no way that Danny was going to meekly give in to whatever this guy had in store for him. He stoically endured the removal of his socks, shoes and belt and then the guard turned and left the cell. Smith stood still, openly gloating. "I wanted to put you in ankle shackles, too," he informed Danny, "but I was told to wait and see if you would behave first. I do hope you won't behave."

"Do you?" Danny asked, neutrally. He hoped his face did not give away the tenor of his thoughts. He was not staying here. He had to get away. He took in a deep breath, willing his headache to subside, but it was still pounding away. Danny knew he had no choice but to act now. Later would be too late.

The moment Smith turned his back to leave, Danny lunged at him. It was difficult with his hands cuffed together, but would have been impossible had they still been cuffed behind him. He dealt Smith a hard blow with his fisted hands at the base of the neck and as Smith started to crumple, Danny frantically made a grab for the man's gun.

Smith was a well-trained agent, and although taken by surprise, he was not knocked out by the blow. He realised at once what Danny was aiming for and slapped at the hands fumbling with his gun. He was a fraction too late. Danny had the weapon and swiftly pointed it at Smith, stepping back as far as he could.

"Now," he said, "let's start this again."


	22. Chapter 22

The man Steve was talking to was the most powerful man in the United States – possibly even the world. His name would never be known by anyone outside certain arms of the government; his face was never in newspapers or on television, but his word was absolute law. Even the President did not wield as much power as this man. Steve was lucky enough to have served with this man when they were both in the Navy and Steve had earned his respect. Contacting him was something that Steve had never done before, but this was an extreme situation. He concisely explained what was going on and then waited while his friend thought things through.

"All right, Steve," the man sighed. "Just because it's you and I know you. Collins was working for the government and Leadbetter was too. We kept Leadbetter's location from his brother, but the man got cocky and allowed himself to be photographed by journalists. That was pretty stupid of him. He had worked here in Washington on the government finances, which is how he ended up working for Hawaii without the necessary background checks being done. That was a slip-up on our behalf and that kind of mistake won't be made again, I guarantee that. The person in Chicago who tipped Leadbetter off has paid the penalty. It is a nuisance that both men are dead; they were very useful in their jobs and will be difficult to replace."

"Grand," Steve drawled sarcastically. "Gary, I don't care about those men. I only care about Dan Williams and Judith Leadbetter."

"Have a little patience, Steve," Gary replied. "Judith will be debriefed and relocated; she isn't in any danger. I already knew that the agents had picked her up. As for Dan Williams…" There was a pause that Steve did not like at all. "I'll arrange for his release right now. As soon as I know where you can find him, I'll call you."

"Just tell me where he is now and I'll get him myself," Steve growled through gritted teeth. "Gary, Danno is not well enough to endure any rough stuff those agents might inflict on him. He only got out of the hospital yesterday."

"I'll call you back," Gary replied, unperturbed and promptly hung up.

Seething, there was nothing Steve could do but wait.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Get the guard back in here," Danny ordered. He blinked sharply to keep Smith in focus. His headache was increasing with the activity level, but there was nothing Danny could do about that. "Very carefully, or I will blow your head off."

Warily, Smith did as he was told. Danny was a loose cannon and Smith had a healthy fear of the gun pointed at his head. The guard reappeared and Danny moved quickly so that the gun was resting on Smith's temple. "Throw your weapon outside, carefully," Danny ordered. When the guard hesitated, Danny took the safety off with a loud click and the guard complied. "Now put the key in the outside of the lock," he went on. He watched both men carefully as the guard, his face set and angry, did as he was told. Danny stepped carefully around Smith, wary of any moves the agent might make, keeping the gun against his blond head as he did so. The safety was still off and Smith remained still. "Move back into the cell," Danny added. The room was small, but the lack of a bunk gave him more manoeuvring room.

With a sudden shove, Danny pitched Smith forward into the guard's legs and dragged the door closed behind him. He barely managed to turn the key before a body hurtled into door. Shouting and swearing immediately began to emanate from the small space, but Danny ignored it. He grabbed the bunch of keys and found the handcuff key and realised that there was a huge problem.

Blinking away the sweat running into his eyes and squinting to focus against the pain, Danny saw with despair that the keyholes on the cuffs were on the top. No matter how he twisted his wrists and fingers, there was no way for him to get the key into the hole and free his hands. Stifling a curse, Danny grabbed his watch and his wallet. There was no time to slip on his shoes or grab his belt. The noise that the Smith and the guard were making was impressive and Danny knew that his escape would not go unnoticed for much longer. He turned and hurried through the corridor, looking for a way out.

It was only a matter of a few moments before he heard sounds of pursuit. Danny knew he was at a disadvantage. He had only seen the route from the interrogation room to the cells and he had been feeling too ill to concentrate on the twists and turns that he had traversed from the car. He just had to run and hope.

Running was not really an option. There were umpteen locked doors that might lead to the outside, and fumbling with the keys slowed him right down. The floor was icy cold under his bare feet and the dust and debris that lay on it made it slightly slippery. Danny's head was more than throbbing now. He was nauseated beyond belief, but he kept on moving, not aware that he was staggering rather than running.

"Stop!"

Turning, Danny fired blindly at the figure in the corridor behind him. He could not see clearly and he hoped that he hadn't killed anyone as the figure dropped out of sight. Turning, he stumbled on. He had to get out of there!

A bullet whistled past his cheek and Danny ducked, losing his balance as he did so. He stumbled against the wall, which stopped him falling, and used it to push himself forwards once more. He knew his time had run out, but while there was still breath in his body, he wasn't going to give up. He half-turned and fired a shot in the air, more as a deterrent than an attempt to actually hit anyone. Unfortunately, his opponents didn't have the same courtesy. The bullet caught him in the back of his shoulder. Danny was knocked off his feet, crashing to the floor. He was vaguely aware of pounding footsteps drawing closer but he blacked out before they reached him


	23. Chapter 23

The phone had barely begun to ring when Steve snatched it up. "McGarrett!" he snapped, his anxiety levels soaring through the roof.

"It's Gary," replied his contact. "You can find Williams at Pier 46, in the old Hanuki warehouse."

"Is he all right?" Steve demanded.

There was a pause. "One of the agents was slightly over-zealous when Williams attempted to escape," Gary replied carefully. "I regret that happened. However, your man should not have become involved in this case in the first place."

"Let me remind you that Judith Leadbetter called us for help when her husband went missing," Steve snapped. "What were we meant to do? Nothing? We had no knowledge of his government involvement. Your agents have done nothing but mess things up!" Steve could not remember the last time he had been this angry. "If something has happened to Danno, then I will bring charges against those agents involved!"

"No, you won't," Gary replied and the menace in his voice gave Steve pause. "That would be a big mistake, Steve and I would not be willing to help you out of any mess that created. It would be a shame to lose you, as you are doing a great job out there in Hawaii. But any attempt on your part to bring this agency to the light of day would be the last thing you did. Do I make myself clear?"

"Threats won't stop me," Steve reminded his friend.

"That wasn't a threat," Gary retorted. "I am doing you a favour here, Steve. You want your man back? Then you play it my way. It is very easy for me to make him disappear forever; very easy. If you don't play by my rules, then Williams will pay the price and I will be more than willing to show you the photographic evidence. Williams could live a long time in our care. We won't let him die, but he won't enjoy his life."

"You've changed, Gary," Steve hissed. "The man I knew would never have done anything like this."

"Times change," Gary replied, his tone unperturbed. "You have a choice, Steve. Either you do as I say, or your man vanishes into thin air and becomes our hostage for your good behaviour."

"I don't negotiate," Steve reminded Gary. "Do what you must. I will go to the press with this. I'll go to the President with this. I won't go away quietly."

"Don't make me hurt you," Gary warned.

"I have this conversation on tape," Steve lied. "Do you really think I won't use it? You know me, Gary. I will stay silent about this if you get your men out of Hawaii. I want Dan Williams back and I want him now!" He paused, but there was no reply. "Gary, come on," he added, trying to calm his temper. "Are your men really going to be of much use to you here, now that I know about them? I can concentrate resources on finding and watching them. This is my rock and I won't have your bully boys coming in and spoiling things. Do what you like on the mainland, but leave Hawaii alone."

The pause lasted so long that Steve wondered if they had been cut off. "Gary?"

"All right, Steve, I'll give you the truth," Gary sighed. "The orders to remove the agents from Honolulu have already been issued. With Leadbetter dead, we have no need of them there. However, if you don't agree to keep quiet, then Williams will be leaving the island with them and you won't see him again." Gary paused. "Now do we have a deal or not? Being my friend does not make you invulnerable."

"All right," Steve agreed, feeling worn out and dirty. He had wanted the agents gone; Gary was offering him that in return for something that would grate on his conscience for some time to come, but it was better than the alternative; Danno held hostage for his good behaviour for the rest of his life, and Steve's likely death in a short time. He did not wish to see those agents becoming any kind of force on the rock. "How do I know they are really gone?" he asked.

There was a rueful chuckle. "You don't," Gary admitted. "All I can give you is my word. You know what that is worth." The implied threat to Danny was still in the air, but Steve knew that Gary did not give his word lightly.

"I accept your word," Steve agreed. "But one sniff of those agents and I give my word that I will go to the press with this."

"And I accept your word," Gary agreed. "Don't contact me again, Steve. Goodbye."

Steve put the phone down gently. He was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. Dealing with the government secret agencies was a nasty business and the life of his closest friend had hung in the balance there. Drawing a deep breath, Steve glanced at the words he had written on a pad of paper. He had to get to Pier 46 right away.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Awareness trickled slowly back into Danny's mind. He didn't want to wake up. Waking meant the pain returning and there was more pain than he could deal with. His whole body was one big pain and he couldn't remember why. He shivered and a groan broke free. Despite his best attempts, he was awake now, but he didn't open his eyes – couldn't open his eyes. His body didn't seem to answer any of his commands anymore. Danny thought he ought to be worried about that, but somehow, thanks to the pounding in his head, he wasn't.

His clothes were damp, Danny realised after a while. Not wet through, but damp and cold. He was cold. Where was he? He tried again to open his eyes and this time they cooperated, but it didn't help any. His vision was blurred and the light far too bright to bear for more than a few seconds. He groaned as his eyes slammed shut again. He needed help, he knew and gritted his teeth to start the journey to his feet.

The first movement, drawing his legs upwards, was an immense mistake. Pain shot through his groin and up into ribs and across his shoulders, arms and back. For a horrible moment, Danny thought he was going to be sick, but from somewhere he found the ability to breathe shallowly through his mouth and the nausea eased.

"I'm concussed," he remembered aloud and his voice was as dry and cracked as his lips felt. His mouth was leached of moisture. He couldn't remember how he had come to be lying… here… wherever 'here' was. He felt ill – worse than ill, but there wasn't another word he could dredge up that described how unwell he felt. It did bring home to him that lying… 'here' … wasn't a good idea and pain or no pain, he had to get up and try and find help. Drawing in breath, Danny tried to move again.

He told himself he was prepared for the pain this time, but it was a lie. The body was never prepared for pain. This time, he breathed through it and came to the realisation that his feet were tied together and his hands were secured behind his back. A surge of adrenalin shot through his system and for a moment his mind was clearer. He'd been with Judith – hadn't he? And the agents had come and … Smith! Danny's eyes flew open again, but he still could not see clearly. The world was just a bright blur and he had to face the facts that he was not going to be able to help himself. He was too hurt, too ill and helpless.

As he lay there, bits and pieces of memory slid back into place. He could remember escaping from the cell with the keys, leaving Smith and the guard locked in, but what had happened after that was gone. One thing was for sure – he had not escaped. He was bound and helpless and from the feel of his body, he had taken quite a kicking. Danny was sure he ought to come up with some kind of plan to get out of this mess, but his head hurt too much to think of anything. His eyes closed, his breathing slowed and he slipped into a light sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Racing through the streets of Honolulu, Steve put out a call for backup to meet him at the warehouse. Chin and Kono were busy on the north shore, so he knew it would not be them who responded. The call from the nearest car cheered him. It was Chinough Olena.

Steve waited with barely contained impatience for the couple of minutes it took Olena to join him outside the warehouse. With guns drawn and ready, they found the door and Olena made short work of the flimsy lock. He took point, protecting Steve from any shooter that might be waiting inside, but there was only silence.

The warehouse was huge; a decaying, damp hulk of a place that needed to be torn down. Old crates and pallets littered the floor and it was filthy, hung with giant cobwebs. Steve shuddered. This was a dreadful place for Danny to have been left. Steve refused to allow the thought that he had been double-crossed and Danny had been spirited off the island. He knew that the phone number he had used to contact Gary would already be disconnected and if Danny was not here, Steve knew that he would never see his friend alive again. It was not a comfortable thought.

Together, he and Olena checked the place out. Olena's face was set; Steve knew the man was Danny's friend and he, too dreaded what they might find. It was only a few days since he had saved Danny's life when Collins was about to stab the unconscious detective. Steve vaguely thought that he ought to think of a way to thank Olena publicly for saving Danny, but he shoved the thought aside. Right now, finding Danny was the main – the only – focus of his world.

Some tiny sound had both policemen freezing in place. Steve gestured in the direction it had come from and Olena nodded agreement. Together, even more alert, they headed towards the sound. A large stack of broken pallets hid the corner from view and Steve eased his way around them carefully, still prepared to be shot at.

"Danno!" The exclamation broke from his lips as he dived towards his missing detective. Behind him, he sensed, Olena doing another protective sweep of the building.

The younger man was unconscious. He face was lumpy with bruising and the neat bandage that had covered the gash on his head was gone. The stitches were miraculously intact, but the wound was dirty. Danny's hands were cuffed tightly behind his back and the shoulder of his polo shirt was soaked in blood. A small round hole gave mute testament to the cause. Danny's feet were also bound.

"Get an ambulance," Steve ordered, his hands fumbling for his handcuff keys. He had the cuffs removed in an instant and struggled for a few moments with the rope binding Danny's feet. Very gently, supporting Danny's head, he turned the unconscious man over and saw that there was no exit wound in the front of his shoulder. Danny's clothes were damp to the touch and his skin was chilled. He was pale under the dirt on his face. "Danno, can you hear me?" Steve asked. A darkening bruise down Danny's cheek looked ominously like a handprint to Steve. "Danno!"

After a moment, the eyelashes fluttered and Danny opened unfocused blue eyes. "Steve?" he whispered.

"It's me, Danno," Steve replied, relieved by the fact his man had reacted. "Stay awake for me now, you hear?"

"It hurts," Danny mentioned, his eyes closing.

"I know," Steve commiserated. "You've been shot."

"Yeah?" Danny asked, as though he didn't know. "Oh." He sounded incredibly young and vulnerable and Steve wished savagely that he could get his hands on whoever had done this to his friend. Danny's eyes opened again. "Steve? Where's Judith?"

"She's safe," Steve replied, because what else could he say? Judith would disappear into safe keeping somewhere else in the world and he would never see or hear from her again. Danny was not in any fit state to hear that at the moment.

"Good," Danny sighed. "There were… too many of them to fight."

"I know," Steve soothed. "Just rest."

"Steve, I can't really see," Danny said a few moments later. He didn't sound particularly disturbed by this, but if fairly set Steve's heart working overtime. "It's all too bright and blurry." Danny swallowed dryly. "I'm concussed," he remembered again.

"Yes," Steve agreed. "Just rest." While he was glad that Danny was talking and pretty lucid, he was worried about his friend and didn't want him wasting his energy on unnecessary chatter. Where was that ambulance? He wanted to get Danny into Doc's care as soon as possible. Danny had been missing for several hours – who knew how long that bullet had been in him?

"Ambulance will be here in a minute, Steve," Olena reported, returning to the men. "I'll go guide them in. I asked the hospital to alert Doc Bergman."

"Chinough?" Danny mumbled. "That you?"

"It's me, Danny," Chinough agreed. "Saving your hide again," he teased to hide his own distress. "Guess that's another steak dinner you owe me."

"More than that," Danny sighed. "Owe you much more than that." He seemed to be unaware that he was basically cradled in Steve's arms.

"Thanks," Steve told the other man. "Thank you for everything." He hoped Chinough understood all that he tried to pour into those words.

It seemed he did. Smiling shyly, Chinough glanced at Danny. "No biggie, bruddah," he replied huskily. "No biggie."


	24. Chapter 24

Following the ambulance to the hospital, Steve reflected bitterly that whenever the federal agencies got involved with one of their cases, things went horribly wrong. This case in point was probably the biggest example of that. It had started out as a missing persons case, taken on because both he and Governor Jameson knew the victim. It had spiralled out of control almost immediately when the feds had taken Danny prisoner. From there, things had become worse and worse. Collins' appearance had, initially, seemed to be the answer to many questions that Five-O had, but he had proved to be part of the problem. Things had escalated from there until both Leadbetter and Collins were dead and Judith and Danny had been taken by the feds. Steve now had Danny back, but Judith was lost to them forever and Steve did not know how his second in command would take that news.

For the time being, he shoved that aside. Danny was hurt – and how badly was something that Steve could only speculate on for the moment. His concussion was clearly worse and that frightened Steve. He didn't really know much about head injuries, but what he did know was enough to make his imagination take him down routes that he would really rather have left unexplored. He stopped his car behind the ambulance and rushed to the stretcher as it was unloaded. Bergman was already at the other side of it, taking in the bruising and blood that marked Danny's appearance.

"The bullet is still in there," Steve explained. The stain on Danny's jacket had spread, despite the pressure bandages the attendants had used.

The look that Bergman flicked Steve promised that the coroner would be demanding answers as to how the injured, off-duty officer had come to be shot, but now was not the time. He nodded and the attendants had the stretcher moving, even as Bergman began barking out orders for blood, an OR and x-rays. Steve hurried after them, but this time Bergman did not allow him access to the ER room. "Later, Steve," he barked and closed the door. Thwarted, Steve could only stand and watch through the window.

Danny wasn't in the ER long; just long enough for x-rays to be taken and his clothing to be cut off. With an IV in one arm and wearing an oxygen mask, draped in a sheet, he was whisked out of the ER and into an elevator and Steve had not had a chance to do more than look at his detective's pale face before he was out of sight. There was nothing to do now except wait some more.

He knew he should really go back to the office, but there was no way Steve could leave the hospital while Danny was in the operating theatre. It wasn't like there was going to be a lot of paperwork to tidy up with this case. Most of what he had learned could not be committed to files. There would be no trial – there might not even have been a trial had Leadbetter lived and Collins been arrested.

Sighing, Steve called the office anyway and let Jenny know what was happening. She was upset to hear that Danny had been hurt and promised to contact Chin and Kono at once. Steve knew he should call the Governor and update him on what had been going on, but he knew he couldn't leave the hospital at the moment – unless it was for the direst emergency – and he put the thought aside for now.

A time later – Steve never knew how long – Chinough Olena appeared in the corridor. "Steve, I examined the warehouse where we found Danny, but there was nothing to find," he reported. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Steve responded. "Don't worry about it. Thanks, Chinough."

"How is Danny?" the big man asked, clearly worried.

"They're operating," Steve replied. He didn't know any more than that and was afraid to speculate. "I'm sure he'll be fine," he added, because he could not bear the thought of any other outcome.

"Good," Chinough agreed with relief. "He owes me a steak dinner." He smiled slightly, aware that Steve did not know the significance of that comment.

"I'll make him pay up," Steve promised. He knew now that he wanted to give Olena a commendation for his shooting of Collins the other day. He had been in the right place at the right time and had he not been there, Danno would have died. He deserved the recognition. He would start the ball rolling as soon as he got back to the office.

Glancing at his watch, Steve realised that time really had no meaning. Until he saw Danno again, he would just drift in this uncomfortable non-time zone that he currently inhabited. How long had it been? What time had Danny gone into the OR? He didn't want to ask anyone, because how would that look? The all-powerful chief of Five-O losing track of time? It wouldn't look good at all!

He was saved further musings by Bergman appearing. The doctor didn't look happy or sad and Steve could not guess how the surgery had gone. "Well?" he demanded.

"We got the bullet," Bergman replied. "It wasn't easy, though. The bullet had lodged in Danny's scapula – his shoulder blade – and we had to dig it out."

"But he'll be all right," Steve asserted. "Won't he?"

"The scapula broke as we dug the bullet out," Berman explained. "It was almost certainly cracked by the bullet and our digging around made things worse. The orthopaedic surgeon put a couple of small plates on it to ensure that it heals well. Danny's going to be out for a while, but with some physical therapy, he'll recover."

"Thank goodness," Steve sighed.

"He's not entirely out of the woods though," Bergman warned. "He's been doing too much and his concussion symptoms have increased. I was obviously going to be keeping him here for a few days and I will be keeping a very close eye on him in the meantime. I won't be releasing him until I am satisfied." He gave Steve a hard look. "How did he come to be shot when he's on medical leave?" he enquired.

"As for the shooting, I don't altogether know," Steve admitted. "He went to see Judith Leadbetter today. While he was there, the feds arrived and took them both away. More than that I can't tell you. Doc, he was pretty badly bruised…"

"Yes," Bergman sighed. He gestured to Steve to follow him and they both began to walk. "It looks to me like he was worked over by someone who knew what they were doing. He is seriously bruised all over his body, but there aren't any broken bones. He's going to be one mighty sore boy when he wakes up, that's for sure." He opened a door and ushered Steve inside.

Danny lay on the bed, his eyes heavily closed. He was still paler than usual, but looked better than he had when Steve found him. The bruise on his cheek had darkened and spread to encompass his left eye. His left arm was in a sling and strapped across his chest. He was still hooked up to the IV and had oxygen support. While Danny slept on, Bergman showed Steve the worst of the bruising in Danny's groin and across his back and abdomen. Steve burned with impotent fury. There was nothing he could do to bring the person or people who had done this to justice. "All I can tell you is that it's over, Doc," Steve told him.

"And that's it?" Bergman scoffed. "No chasing down the bad guys?"

"I only wish I could," Steve replied, staring down at his friend, who was stirring back to consciousness. "I only wish I could."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Danny's recovery was steady. He had explained his escape attempt to Steve, who was impressed by his friend's daring, even if he wished that Danny sometimes wasn't quite as impulsive. Both of them were angry that they were unable to go after the men who had done this, but oddly, it was Danny who came to terms with it more quickly than Steve.

"They were under orders," he replied, when Steve questioned him. "I guess I can understand that, in a way." He went to shrug, then remembered it was a bad idea. "I couldn't work for them; too moral I suppose," he explained. "But we both know of lots of people who don't seem to have a conscience."

"Indeed we do," Steve sighed.

"And look at it this way," Danny added. "It could have been worse."

"You came out alive," Steve agreed. He had told Danny, after swearing him to secrecy, about his phone call to his friend in Washington, who had helped to free the younger man. Steve didn't go into any details about who this man was, or what his job actually entailed, but Danny was wise enough not to ask after all his recent encounters with the mysterious feds. "That's what counts here." He gently placed his hand on Danny's good shoulder. His friend had been quite unwell for several days, the concussion symptoms returning with a vengeance and the broken shoulder hurting more than should have been allowed. Now, Danny was back on limited duty and Steve felt that the world was regaining its balance. The dark days could be put behind them.

"I just wish I knew if Judith was all right," Danny sighed. He had voiced this thought several times.

"I do, too," Steve agreed. Then he made a determined effort to be more cheerful. "Are you ready to give Chinough his commendation this evening?" he asked. The press had been notified of the event and there was going to be a big celebration luau afterwards.

Brightening immediately, Danny nodded. "I sure am!" he agreed. "This will be better than any steak dinner!"

Pau.


End file.
